Turkey
The government awarded TransAtlantic Petroleum Corp., Calgary, three exploration licenses in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq.
The 4-year licenses cover a combined 162,762 acres. Combined work commitments will total $300,000 in 2 years. Other commitments to gather seismic data or drill wells will be made later.
Two licenses are near Bismil on the Tigris River adjacent to Molla and Karakilise producing oil fields. The company will target an underexplored Paleozoic play at 3,000 m.
The third license is near Cizre 60 km from the Iraq border and targets a deep Zagros-type subthrust play. An anticipated exploratory well on a nearby block just east could provide support for the area’s potential.
Venezuela
Argentine and Uruguayan firms will assess the volume of extra heavy oil in an area of Venezuela’s Orinoco.
Venezuela’s state owned Petroleos de Venezuela said it signed an agreement with Argentine state energy company Energia Argentina SA (Enarsa) and Uruguay’s state Administracion Nacional de Combustibles Alcohol y Portland (ANCAP).
Enarsa and Ancap will seek to quantify and certify the volume of oil that might be recovered from the Ayacucho 6 area in the eastern part of vast heavy oil belt (see map, OGJ, Nov. 21, 2005, p. 54).
Vinccler Oil & Gas CA, Caracas, and Petroleos de Venezuela SA started producing 10 MMcfd of gas from Cumarebo field into Venezuela’s 30-in. Interconnection Centro Occidente pipeline. The line also moves gas from La Vela field since December 2005. The 70-mile line serves the Paraguana refinery complex.
Yemen
MND Exploration & Production Ltd., subsidiary of the Czech oil and gas producer MND, took a farmout under which it will participate with Oil Search Ltd., Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in three exploration blocks in Yemen.
MND acquired 20% interest in Gardan Block 3, 15% interest in Mukalla Block 15, and 10% interest in Al Hood Block 35. A land rig is under contract to begin drilling three firm wells in the fourth quarter of 2006, starting with Prospect B on Block 35.
Spud date for Riyan, Oil Search’s first well on Block 15 in the Gulf of Aden, is January 2007 (see map, OGJ, Nov. 28, 2005, p. 31).
Mississippi
Odyssey Petroleum Corp., Vancouver, BC, secured a rig commitment for the drilling of 12 development wells starting in October 2006 in Puckett, Pelahatchie, Verba, and Barber Creek fields in Mississippi.
The rig is capable of drilling efficiently to 12,500 ft.
Odyssey also obtained funding for a four-well workover program in Verba field, where it has four wells producing 85-95 b/d of oil.
The company’s June 2006 sales were 7,000 bbl of oil and 34 MMcf of gas. It has 30 producing wells and 20 awaiting workovers.
Odyssey now controls 3,850 gross acres in Pelahatchie and has obtained legal rights to complete the Harold Karges well, which encountered 20 oil and gas zones to TD 17,100 ft in 2001.
Wyoming
Brigham Exploration Co., Austin, spudded a Cretaceous Mowry shale wildcat in Niobrara County.
The Krejci Federal 3-29 well is a planned horizontal Mowry test projected to 7,500 ft true vertical depth. Well cost is put at $3 million to $3.5 million. A second well is planned.
American Oil & Gas Inc., Denver, controls 90% working interest in more than 63,000 acres north of Lusk in the southeastern Powder River basin. Brigham is funding 100% of drilling and completion costs for the two wells and will carry American and North Finn LLC for their respective 45% and 5% shares of costs.
Three wells drilled to deeper objectives on American’s acreage in the 1960s were completed in Mowry and produced commercial quantities of oil without benefit of modern drilling-completion techniques.
