Area Drilling

March 27, 2006
Aminex PLC, London, expanded into Kenya with signing of a participation agreement with Upstream Petroleum Services Ltd.

Kenya

Aminex PLC, London, expanded into Kenya with signing of a participation agreement with Upstream Petroleum Services Ltd. regarding Blocks L9 and L10 in the Lamu basin off southernmost Kenya.

UPSL is acquiring seismic and geochemical data on the blocks under a technical evaluation agreement with the government. The TEA covers 5,000 sq km in fairly shallow water close to potential gas markets in Mombasa, Aminex said. UPSL has 50% and Aminex and Somken Petroleum Co. 25% each. The partners have exclusive access to the data until Sept. 30 and after that may negotiate a production sharing contract in 2006.

Northwest Territories

EnCana Corp. applied for a declarations of significant discovery for the Umiak N-05 and N-16 wells at Burnt Lake in the Mackenzie Delta 47 miles north of Inuvik.

EnCana, Anadarko Canada Corp., and ConocoPhillips Canada Ltd. drilled the wells on Exploration License 384. EnCana previously reported encouraging hydrocarbon shows at N-16 (OGJ, Oct. 18, 2004, p. 18). Anadarko said the companies began reprocessing 3D seismic data for development planning and to mature nearby exploration leads.

Gulf of Mexico

ATP Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, started production in mid-March from Gomez oil and gas field in 3,000 ft of water on Mississippi Canyon Block 711.

Two wells are being produced, and a second development phase is set to start in mid-2006. The field has eight identified and logged oil and gas sands. ATP is operator with 100% working interest.

Utah

Cleary Petroleum Corp., Oklahoma City, reported oil shows in Jurassic Upper Navajo sand but decided to plug a wildcat on the Utah Hingeline.

The State Powder Mountain 1-11 well, in 11-13s-1e, Juab County, went to TD 7,183 ft, TVD 7,077 ft. The site is 60 miles north of the Covenant discovery, the Hingeline’s only producing field.

Cleary Petroleum said it is evaluating its acreage block for another well.