Algeria’s state owned Sonatrach has awarded nine new licenses for oil and gas exploration to international companies on Apr. 9 in its sixth international licensing round.
BP PLC won three blocks, while BHP Billiton Ltd., Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd., and a Shell affiliate were awarded with two blocks each. Sonatrach offered 10 blocks.
BP blocks
BP, already involved in several large projects in Algeria, won the Southeast Illizi and Bourarhat blocks in the Illizi basin and the Hassi Matmat block in the Benoud basin 160 km northeast of supergiant Hassi R’Mel gas-condensate field.
The company plans to acquire seismic data and drill wells on both blocks.
BP and Sonatrach operate Rhourde el Baguel oil field, and BP and Statoil of Norway jointly operate the In Salah dry gas project producing as of July 2004 and the In Amenas gas-condensate project due onstream in late 2005 or early 2006,
Shell, BHP awards
Sonatrach awarded Shell Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH a contract for the prospecting, appraisal, and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Reggane and Timimoun basins. Award of the Reggane Djebel Hirane and Timimoun Zerafa blocks marked Shell’s re-entry into the Algerian upstream.
At Reggane Djebel Hirane, the first exploration phase consists of two exploration wells, 750 line-km of 2D seismic, and 900 sq km of 3D seismic. At Zerafa, a first exploration phase calls for 2 exploration wells, 960 line-km of 2D seismic, and 540 sq km of 3D seismic.
BHP Billiton was awarded block 443a-424a-415ext-414ext south of Hassi Bir Rekaiz in the Berkine basin and block 222b-222c-223b south of Oudoume in the Illizi basin.
Gulf Keystone
Gulf Keystone was awarded Block 129 on the Bottena perimeter in the Southeast Constantine basin and blocks 317b1, 322b3, 347b, 348, and 349b on the Hassi Ba Hamou perimeter in the Bechar Oued Namous basin.
Block 129, covering 4,369 sq km, is east of Gulf Keystone-operated Block 126a in the Ferkane area near western Tunisia. Block 129 contains two Sonatrach discoveries, Djebel Onk oil field and Djebel Foua gas field.
Sonatrach has acquired 5,300 line-km of 2D seismic data and 379 sq km of 3D seismic data from which it has identified two exploration prospects and nine leads. Gas pipelines from Hassi R’Mel field to Tunisia and Europe cross the block.
The Hassi Ba Hamou blocks total 18,380 sq km and contain the Sonatrach HBH-1 discovery. Sonatrach had previously acquired 4,069 km of 2D seismic data and identified five exploration prospects.
Gulf Keystone said it plans to add reserves on Block 126 with further drilling, testing, and evaluation of GKN field and the GKS, GRJ, OGZ, and FKN discoveries. It said Block 126 has total estimated remaining proved and probable reserves of 221 million boe and considerable potential in possible and lead prospective resources of 959.6 million st-tk bbl and 2.6 tcf of gas. ✦