Denmark
Star Energy Group PLC, London, agreed to take 20% interest from Tethys Oil AB, Stockholm, in the Tethys-operated 1/02 license onshore Zealand and 1/03 license onshore and off Jutland and Zealand in Denmark.
License 1/02 contains the Karlebo prospect, where an exploration well is to be drilled this fall (OGJ Online, July 6, 2006).
The farmout calls for Star Energy to pay 20% of historical costs and 40% of the cost of an exploration well on 1/02 to earn its 20% interest. This will reduce the Tethys interest to 50%.
Star Energy is the second largest onshore UK oil producer.
Saudi Arabia
The petroleum ministry announced the discovery of a gas field in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia.
Zamlah-1, 50 km south of Ghawar field, flowed 20 MMscfd of gas and 1,400 b/d of condensate from an undisclosed formation.
Alberta
Nexen Inc., Calgary, plans to be producing at least 150 MMcfd of gas from Cretaceous Mannville coals in Alberta by 2011.
Output is expected to grow to more than 30 MMcfd by the end of 2006 from 5 MMcfd in mid-July, and the company is running 8 drilling rigs. It has completed gas handling facilities with a capacity of 94 MMcfd.
Nexen said its horizontal drilling program has exceeded the company’s expectation and that the longer-term production target is based on developing less than half of the CBM lands it holds.
Colorado
Lexam Explorations Inc., Toronto, plans to raise as much as $3 million to advance the 100,000-acre Baca Grant oil and gas project in the nonproducing San Luis basin.
Lexam is seeking permits for two exploratory wells to seek natural gas as deep as 14,000 ft and a 3D seismic survey on the property, owned 75% by Lexam and 25% by ConocoPhillips (OGJ, June 12, 2006, p. 40).
Lexam put its 3D seismic cost at $1.6 million. It published plans for the acquisition of 26 sq miles of seismic data in the basin north of Alamosa, Colo.
Indiana
Rex Energy Operating Corp., State College, Pa., said it identified more than 80 drilling locations, 60 recompletions, and several waterflood optimization opportunities on Illinois basin properties it has acquired from Team Energy LLC, Bridgeport, Ill.
Rex Energy paid $22.9 million for the properties in Gibson and Posey counties, Ind., and Lawrence County, Ill. The acquisition includes 2.9 million bbl of proved reserves and 1.1 million bbl of probable reserves.
Rex Energy said its Illinois basin assets now produce more than 3,000 b/d and include more than 200,000 gross acres with projects that target conventional oil, enhanced oil recovery, and New Albany shale gas.
Wyoming
Wyoming approved downspacing to 10 acres in two areas totaling 16.3 sq miles in giant Pinedale Anticline gas-condensate field, said Ultra Petroleum Corp., Houston.
Current development in the two areas covered in the joint application by Ultra and Shell Oil Co.’s US unit is a mix of 40-acre, 20-acre, and 10-acre equivalent density, with 20 acres being the majority figure, Ultra said.
The state’s approval will result in the ability to drill 1,043 wells in the two areas, which have 174 wells to date. Of the 1,043 wells, Ultra will operate 724 and hold an interest in 947. The field is in the northern Green River basin.