Colombia
Solana Resources Ltd., Calgary, declared commercial and placed on long-term test the Guariquies-1 well in the Middle Magdalena basin.
Crude oil has already been trucked and sold, and Guariquies-2 is to be spudded soon. Guariquies-1 went to TD 10,243 at a drilling cost of $7.5 million, and completion, remedial cementing, and testing cost a further $5.5 million. Future appraisal wells will be drilled to 7,000 ft to target the Oligocene Mugrosa formation.
A Mugrosa drillstem test at 5,494-5,652 ft covered three sands and stabilized at 210 b/d of 29.5° gravity oil. Solana perforated 80 ft of sand in a 120-ft net sand interval with porosity greater than 15% and modest permeability. GOR is 400 scf/stb.
A DST to test eight zones in Eocene La Paz at 9,458-10,090 ft with 149 ft of sand perforated flowed 418 b/d of 32° gravity oil with no formation water. Flow did not stabilize, and porosity is fair and permeability low.
Three other DSTs tested 10-30-ft zones at 6,404-9,065 ft with only minor hydrocarbon recovery.
Guariquies-1 is part of an exploration program that calls for 700 km of seismic the 10 more wells in the next 18 months. Ramshorn International and Colombia’s state Ecopetrol participated in the well.
Falkland Islands
Rockhopper Exploration PLC, London, plans 3 to 4 months of processing and interpretation of 2D and controlled source electromagnetic surveys acquired on its North Falkland basin licenses.
The acquisition included 920 km of 2D seismic data on PL023 and PL024. This information will be integrated with an existing 1,832 km of 2D data on which Rockhopper has identified the J1 prospect and a number of leads.
The CSEM survey, on the same two blocks, is the first ever carried out in the Falklands.
Georgia Republic
CanArgo Energy Corp., Calgary, said its Georgian subsidiary signed a memorandum of understanding containing a take-or-pay agreement to sell to the Ministry of Energy gas from the Kumisi gas prospect, which CanArgo plans to appraise in 2006.
The price starts at $1.56/Mcf and rises to $2.28/Mcf by the tenth year, then escalates based on the price European Union heavy fuel oil. The contract is for the life of the field.
The WR16 well 9 miles south of Tbilisi is reported to have tested gas-condensate in Soviet times from what is interpreted as a gas-water contact in the Cretaceous/Paleocene horizon. Seismic data show a large prospect updip.
Indonesia
An appraisal well encountered gas in Oligocene Upper Berai limestone 2.6 km northwest of a 1974 discovery well drilled by Ashland Petroleum Indonesia Inc. in the Makassar Straits off southern East Kalimantan.
Pearl Energy Ltd., Singapore, operator of the Makassar Straits-2, said the well found Upper Berai to have 140 ft of gross thickness but only 10 ft of gas-bearing reservoir quality rock.
Pressure data confirmed that both wells penetrated the same reservoir, but neither found a gas-water contact in Upper Berai. The Shelf Explorer jack-up drilled MS-2 to TD 5,500 ft.
The rig was moving to drill Berlian-1, second of three planned exploration wells.
Interests in the 8,773 sq km Sebuku PSC are Pearl Energy and Fuel-x International Inc., Calgary, 50% each.
New Zealand
A group led by McKenzie Petroleum, Wellington, offered farmouts on three areas in 336 sq km PEP 38521 in the Westland basin south of Greymouth on the northwestern South Island.
Area A contains most of the Brunner anticline, where the 1943 SFL-1 exploration well flowed 6.5 MMcfd of 97% methane from the Oligocene Omotumoto sandstone member of the Kaiata formation at less than 900 ft before being plugged for lack of a market. The well site is 4 km from an electricity transmission line.
Area B contains the southern part of the Brunner anticline and other seismic prospects and leads. Block C is the deep oil prospective Grey Valley half-graben with the Pounamu seismic prospect and other leads.
Paraguay
CDS Oil & Gas Group PLC, London, plans to farm out its Gabino Mendoza and Boqueron blocks in the Chaco basin after its first well failed to meet expectations.
The CDS-GM-05-5001 well, which fulfilled the company’s Gabino Mendoza work obligation, went to TD 1,635 m and found liquid hydrocarbons in several zones (OGJ Online, Dec. 27, 2005). However, reservoir quality is too poor for the liquids to flow oil unassisted. Mobilization delays caused a $1.4 million cost overrun.
Several companies have expressed interest in taking a farmout.
The company will focus on shallow oil exploration around the Emilia well on the Boqueron Block. It also believes the Gabino Mendoza Block to be gas prospective at 2,600 m.
Russia
Valkyries Petroleum Corp., Vancouver, BC, closed the acquisition of a 50% interest in CJSC Oilgaztet, which holds 100% interest in the license block that includes Ashirovskoye oil field 200 km northwest of Orenburg gas field.
Valkyries is testing a new well in Ashirovskoye that logs indicate cut three Devonian zones and plans to drill a well in the eastern part of the structure.
Upon confirming the field’s main reservoir targets, the companies plan aggressive development.
Tunisia
Cygam Energy Inc., Calgary, said its Rigo Oil Co. Ltd. subsidiary acquired the Bazma Permit west of the 400,000-acre Jorf Permit where Rigo’s interest is 37.5%.
Several companies have expressed interest in participating in Bazma. Oil and gas pipelines cross both permits. Bazma is prospective in Triassic Tagi sandstones and Permian carbonates.
California
Plains Exploration & Production Co., Houston, completed 38 wells in the Los Angeles Basin in the 5 months to the end of February 2006.
Drilling centered on Inglewood field in the Vickers-Rindge waterflood zone, the Moynier formation with a newly initiated waterflood, and to a lesser extent in the Sentous sand primary recovery zone.
Drilling will continue at Inglewood in the Vickers-Rindge and in expanding the successful Moynier development.
Also, a pay interval called the Rubel located between the Vickers-Rindge and Moynier will be drilled, pilot waterflooded, and evaluated this year (OGJ, Apr. 19, 2004, p. 36).
PXP, which has 100% working interest and 80-85% income interest in Inglewood, plans to start drilling this summer in Las Cienegas field, which it acquired in 2005.
Louisiana
Newly public Gulfport Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, has a 2006 budget of $45-60 million.
The 2006 plan is to drill 22 wells and recomplete 18 in West Cote Blanche Bay field in St. Mary Parish and drill six wells in Hackberry field in Cameron Parish. The company shut in both fields days before Hurricane Rita struck on Sept. 24, 2005.
Eleven of the 57 wells that had been producing a net 2,144 boe/d before the storm at WCBB are back on production, and the rest are to be returned to production starting in the second quarter of 2006.
The 2006 wells are expected to produce oil and associated gas from about 9,500 ft. A $5.5 million, 12,000-ft exploratory well is to be drilled in mid-2006.
Hackberry in January neared 85% of its 282 net boe/d prestorm output. One small facility still needs repair. A $6 million, 42 sq mile 3D seismic survey in 2005 will guide 2006 drilling and lead to a $4 million deep wildcat in 2007.
New Mexico
Cuervo Exploration LLC, private Wichita Falls operator, is drilling a wildcat to 10,000 ft or Precambrian in the nonproducing Tucumcari basin.
The CB-1 well, in 7-10n-24e, Guadalupe County, 6 miles north of Cuervo, is between idle Latigo Ranch and Newkirk fields.
Texas
Southwest
Plains Exploration & Production Co., Houston, completed a horizontal Permian Wolfcamp formation test in Pakenham field that is flowing to sales at 1.2 MMcfd.
This is the field’s first horizontal well in Wolfcamp, Pakenham’s primary producing zone. Plains has 100% working interest and 75% income interest in the well.