Colombia
Harken Energy Corp., Dallas, said its affiliate will complete two existing discoveries and further explore the 75,000-acre Rio Verde area in the central Llanos basin.
Harken's Global Energy Development PLC unit will equip for production the Tilodiran-1 and Macarenas-1 discoveries, drilled in 1986 and 1993. Tilodiran-1 flowed 258 bbl of 18-23° gravity oil in 5 hr on a drillstem test. Macarenas-1 flowed 320 b/d of 33° gravity oil on a drillstem test. Harken didn't disclose productive intervals.
Global hopes to install subsurface pumps and surface processing equipment and bring both wells on production as soon as operationally possible.
Under the contract's 20-month Phase 1, Global is required to reprocess 300 km of seismic data and acquire 50 km of 2D data.
The contract provides 6 years for exploration and 24 years for exploitation. To enter Phase 2, Global must drill one exploration well and acquire 25 km more of 2D data. Three other optional 12-month phases require one exploratory well each.
Congo (Brazzaville)
A UK independent reported large increases in recoverable volumes from Mboundi field on the Kouilou exploration permit in eastern Congo (Brazzaville).
Gross proved and probable recoverable volumes have risen to 1.3 billion bbl in September from 885 million bbl in March 2004, said Burren Energy PLC, London. Maurel & Prom, Paris, operates the field.
With 18 wells drilled and completed, Mboundi field had 16 wells on production making 26,000 b/d in September compared with 7,200 b/d in January 2004. Three more wells are drilling, and two to four others should be completed by yearend.
The companies plan to upgrade field facilities to handle 60,000 b/d of oil, double present capacity.
Initial flow rates were 2,250 b/d and 1,400 b/d on 40/64 in. chokes at the 702 and 901 wells, respectively. Oil-water contacts are not yet established outside the southern and eastern parts of the field.
Egypt
Centurion Energy International Inc., Calgary, embarked on a plan to increase its Egyptian gas production by 100 MMcfd by mid-2005 and another 100 MMcfd by the end of 2005.
The company planned to complete three sand intervals at its Gelgel-3 well and would then commence completion of Gelgel-4. Gelgel-2 flowed 15 MMcfd of dry gas from two sands totaling 12 m of pay.
Centurion was shifting its focus to the testing of deeper prospects that potentially contain gas rich in gas liquids. It was to spud East El Wastani-2 in mid-October followed by El Wastani-4.
A second drilling rig is to arrive in the fourth quarter to be used for the Abu Monkar-2 exploration prospect in the South Manzala area.
Indonesia
Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. took a farmout on a 40% interest from Lundin Petroleum AB, Stockholm, in the 3,427 sq km Blora production sharing contract on north-central Java.
The participants spudded the Padi-1 exploration well on the Millir prospect, a fault-sealed, three-way dip closure, and projected to 1,235 m in an Oligocene age sandstone known to produce nearby. Potential is more than 100 million bbl of oil recoverable.
Several drillable oil and gas prospects have been identified on the block.
Interests are Lundin, operator, 43.3%, and China National Offshore Oil Corp. 16.7%.
Mauritania
Groups of independents led by Woodside Petroleum Pty. Ltd. spudded the Dorade-1, Capitaine-1, and Tevet-1 exploration offshore between Sept. 12 and 20.
Dorade is on PSC Block 2, and Capitaine and Tevet are on PSC B, 80-165 km southwest of Nouakchott.
Dorade is to be drilled to 2,660 m in 1,670 m of water 85 km south of Chinguetti field to test an interpreted Late Miocene channel sand fairway prognosed at 2,420 m.
Capitaine to be drilled to 3,140 m in 1,680 m of water 30 km southwest of Chinguetti field to test a structural trap set up by the Chinguetti channel sand system in an anticlinal structure formed by an underlying salt dome. This target is prognosed at 2,930 m.
Tevet is projected to 2,675 m in 489 m of water 10 km northeast of Chinguetti field and 10 km west of the Banda oil and gas discovery to test a combination trap in sands of the same Miocene channel fairway that comprise the reservoir at Chinguetti and Banda, expected at 2,515 m.
Yemen
Calvalley Petroleum Inc., Calgary, spudded the Ras Noor-1 exploration well on Block 9, targeting Cretaceous Upper Qishn sand on a large seismically defined structure.
Secondary targets are in the Saar and Kohlan formations and basement.
Drilling was to take 3-4 weeks to TD 1,706 m.
Northwest Territories
International Frontier Resources Corp., Calgary, will participate with 5% interest in an exploratory well to be drilled this winter on TDL parcel M-37 in EL-397 in the Central Mackenzie Valley.
The preliminary well location is Big Bear K-71, formerly Betty, on a new structure 5 km from the Wilma Summit Creek B-44 well, drilled earlier this year and on which information has not yet been released. Drilling is to take 95 days.
The group led by Unocal Corp. subsidiary Northrock Resources Ltd., Calgary, that drilled Summit Creek B-44 plans a $16 million testing program starting in January 2005 lasting 80 days (OGJ Online, Jan. 2, 2004).
The group is collecting 200 km of helicopter supported 2D seismic data on EL-397, EL-416, and M-37. The survey covers several prospects as well as the Wilma B-44 and Big Bear (Betty) structures.
Alaska
Evergreen Resources Inc., Denver, applied to convert into an exploration license 33,000 of 80,000 acres in the Matanuska-Susitna area on which it had applied for shallow natural gas leases. The rest of the acreage has expired.
The state repealed the law that allowed the initial applications and gave operators until Aug. 31, 2004, to convert to exploration license applications.
The Department of Natural Resources began a public review of the applications that is expected to last 9-12 months.
Tennessee
Fractured Ordovician Trenton limestone flowed oil at the rate of 72 bbl/hr during drilling at the eighth producing well in an unnamed field in Overton County 7 miles northeast of Livingston.
Young Oil Corp., Knob Lick, Ky., plans offset and stepout drilling immediately. Young Oil, which discovered the field earlier this year, said other wells in the field are producing from deeper Ordovician formations and shallower Mississippian Fort Payne lime.
After it flowed at the above rate through three flow lines into four tanks, the company choked back the Lucy Newberry 11 well to 700 b/d through the drilling rig's blowout preventer
