Area Drilling

March 14, 2005
Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. selected a bid by IPR Energy Red Sea Inc., Irving, Tex., for the 290 sq km North Ramadan concession in the Gulf of Suez.

Egypt

Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. selected a bid by IPR Energy Red Sea Inc., Irving, Tex., for the 290 sq km North Ramadan concession in the Gulf of Suez.

IPR plans to explore the block with partner ONGC Videsh Ltd., Mumbai. The block lies mostly north and northwest of the North July block that has been producing since 1991 through offshore infrastructure that could allow quick development in the event of a discovery on North Ramadan, IPR said.

First phase exploration calls for $20 million to acquire 3D seismic data and drill three exploration wells.

IPR sees 200 million bbl of potentially recoverable oil on the North Ramadan block. It also holds the Southwest Gebel El-Zeit development concession in the Gulf of Suez.

Georgia Republic

CanArgo Energy Corp., Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK, said an underbalanced coil tubing drilling unit measured sustained flow rates of 20-25 MMcfd of gas while drilling a 1,148-ft production interval at the N22H horizontal well at Ninotsminda field in the Kura basin.

This may be the largest measured flow rate recorded in Georgia Republic, the company said. Oil was also likely produced but could not be estimated.

Part of the build section of the well, open at the time, penetrates the gas cap through a zone in the reservoir previously described as tight when drilled using conventional drilling techniques, CanArgo said. Problems delayed the startup of the drilling unit. CanArgo expects the unit to tackle 12 horizontal sections in 2005 instead of the originally planned 15. Ninotsminda proved reserves were 6.3 million bbl of oil and 2.6 bcf of gas at the end of 2004.

Utah

Pioneer Oil & Gas, South Jordan, Utah, closed on the first phase of its central Utah project, selling 21,232 gross (7,962 net) acres on the Central Utah Overthrust to an undisclosed buyer for $2.19 million (OGJ, Jan. 17, 2005, p. 42). Pioneer retained a 1.75% overriding royalty interest.

Pioneer also closed on the remaining portion of its 13,189 net acre Uinta basin overpressured gas prospect for $454,709. It retained a 3.25% ORRI and a 10% carried working interest on the first two wells drilled.