Indonesia

Aug. 4, 2003
Unocal Rapak Ltd. completed the Ranggas-Selatan 1 appraisal well, extending deepwater Ranggas oil field to the south on the Rapak production-sharing contract off East Kalimantan.

Unocal Rapak Ltd. completed the Ranggas-Selatan 1 appraisal well, extending deepwater Ranggas oil field to the south on the Rapak production-sharing contract off East Kalimantan.

Selatan-1 was drilled to 10,243 ft and penetrated 187 ft of net oil pay and 258 ft of net gas pay in several zones. The well is 1 mile south of the Ranggas-1 discovery (OGJ Online, May 21, 2002.)

Unocal is conducting engineering studies on possible development of Ranggas field, adding that it plans to have the project ready for government approval by early 2004.

Unocal Rapak is operator of the Rapak PSC, holding an 80% working interest, while Lasmo Rapak Ltd., a subsidiary of ENI SPA, holds 20%.

Louisiana

Researchers are studying a circular feature in southwestern St. Helena Parish as a possible meteorite or comet impact crater.

Louisiana State University researchers first wrote of the Brushy Creek feature in the mid-1990s and plan to report more findings at a Baton Rouge, La., geological conference in October 2003.

Brushy Creek is 1.2 miles in diameter with a rim about 50 ft high. The feature is in an area without salt diapirs, major salt structures, volcanic activity, or carbonate karsting, leaving an impact origin as the most promising hypothesis. Shocked and intensively fractured quartz have been found in the area, writes Paul V. Heinrich in Louisiana Geological Survey News.

Commercial oil and gas accumulations have been associated with impact craters in a number of basins (OGJ, May 11, 1998, p. 69).

Oklahoma

Newfield Exploration Co., Houston, plans to drill a 6,900 ft exploratory test to Cromwell and Wapanucka in central Coal County.

The 1 Bull Mountain, on the southwest side of Centrahoma gas field, is in an area that last saw a discovery in 1976, PennEnergy Data reported. It is in the same square mile with a Global Gas Corp. well that found gas in Wapanucka, Cromwell, Sycamore, and Hunton.

Since February 2003, St. Mary Operating Co., Denver, has drilled five wells on the southeast side of the field, the best of which flowed 2 MMcfd of gas from Basal McLish perforations at 8,088-8,100 ft.

Texas

Gulf Coast

Big Lake Corp., Dallas, discovered a field in Miocene Catahoula sand in Victoria County 3.5 miles southeast of Cologne, Tex.

The 6 J. Salinas well flowed 9.12 MMcfd of gas with 1,187 psi on an 8/64 in. choke from perforations at 2,875-77 ft.

The well is the company's fourth successful completion in Pedro Gallardo Survey A-32, and Big Lake plans to drill three more wells there by yearend 2003.

Wyoming

Ultra Petroleum Corp., Houston, said a well on the Pinedale anticline in the Green River basin flowed at a company record 20.6 MMcfe/d from tight Cretaceous Lance sands and "confirms the extraordinary resource in this more northern area of the anticline."

The Mesa 1-33 well was drilled to target depth at 13,892 ft, where 18 stages were fracture stimulated. The record flow rate was surface constrained at 4,925 psi.

"We suspect that it may be the largest well yet drilled on the Pinedale anticline," the company said.

Ultra is drilling 15 wells and has 5 more waiting on completion. It drilled and completed 4 wells in the first half of 2003.

New completions in the Warbonnet area, hydraulically fractured across Lance thicknesses of 4,673 ft and 5,485 ft, added an estimated 32 well locations on 40-acre spacing.

A typical Lance well costs $3.4 million to drill and complete. At $2.50/ Mcf, Ultra calculates rate of return at 44%, finding and development cost of 50¢/Mcfe, and payout in 2.3 years. It listed reserves of 7.5 bcfe/well and a 36-year reserve life.