Area Drilling

June 2, 2003
Australia; Malaysia; Louisiana; MORE...

Australia

Magellan Petroleum Australia Ltd., Brisbane, and Novus Petroleum Ltd., Sydney, abandoned the Gregory River-3 ST 1 well on northern ATP 613P in the lightly explored Maryborough basin of Queensland.

The well cut 386 m of early Cretaceous Gregory sandstone, the primary objective, but a flow test at 2,666-3,050 m yielded no gas. TD is 3,050 m.

The drill site is 250 km north of Brisbane and 30 km south of Bundaberg. The companies each held 50% interest in the well. They did not specific further plans for the basin.

Malaysia

Talisman Malaysia Ltd. reported its South Angsi No. 1 well discovered oil in Block PM-305 in two reservoir intervals, which will result in Talisman's second producing production-sharing contract in Malaysia.

The well is 10 km south of Angsi field. An upper reservoir with 20 m of net pay flowed on test at a rate of 8,500 b/d of 41° gravity oil. A lower reservoir interval with 15 m of net pay flowed on test at a rate of 2,800 b/d of 48° gravity oil.

North and south sidetracks penetrated oil-water contacts and defined field limits. The find contains an estimated 25 million bbl of proved and probable reserves.

South Angsi is to start producing in mid 2005 at as much as 20,000 b/d. More exploration opportunities will be evaluated for 2004 based upon 3D seismic data obtained on the block in 2002.

Interests in the block are Talisman 60% and Petronas 40%.

Louisiana

Novus Petroleum Ltd., Sydney, said analysis of electric logs indicated a gas discovery at an exploratory test on the Sorrento Dome in Ascension Parish.

The logs from the NUL 13-1 well indicate the presence of a thicker-than-expected 50 ft of gas pay in Miocene Planulina upper lobe, the primary target, intersected as prognosed at 9,870 ft MD. Novus set intermediate casing at 10,209 ft and planned to drill 200-300 ft more to test secondary targets.

Novus will lay a pipeline and might produce deeper zones first if encountered. First gas is expected by October 2002. The company drilled the well, its first operated venture in the US, on a farmout from Burlington Resources Inc., Seneca Resources Corp., and others.

Darcy Energy Ltd. generated the prospect, and Novus acquired the Darcy subsidiary that held this asset in October 2002. Predrill reserve estimate was 7-12 bcf.