Azerbaijan
Eurasia Energy Ltd., Aberdeenshire, Scotland, plans to start negotiating with State Oil Co. of the Azerbaijan Republic in November 2006 to develop a 600 sq km shallow-water block in the Caspian Sea 70 km south of Baku.
SOCAR completed the Alyat-87 well in Alyat-Deniz field on the block in April 2006. It went to TD 3,610 m and flowed 300 b/d of oil and 3.35 MMcfd of gas, boosting field output in oil equivalent by 63%, Eurasia Energy said. SOCAR is drilling a second well.
Also on the block is a string of seven prospective exploration structures that trend southeasterly from the coast to 70 km offshore in 20 to 50 m of water. The structure names are Hamamdag-Deniz, Garasu, Sangi-Mugan, Ulfat, Aran-Deniz, Dashly, and Sabayil.
SOCAR placed Alyat-Deniz cumulative production at 12.5 million bbl of oil and 1 billion cu m (bcm) of gas and estimated remaining reserves at 15 million bbl and 1 bcm. The field was discovered in 1983. TRACS International Consultancy Ltd., Aberdeen, is aggregating available data about the block.
Philippines
NorAsian Energy Ltd., a unit of Ottoman Energy Ltd., Sydney, let a contract to Veritas Geophysical (Asia Pacific) to gather 400 km of 2D seismic data over the giant Marantao Reef prospect.
The prospect, with more than 150 sq km of mapped closure, is on 9,150 sq km Service Contract 55 off southwestern Palawan Island.
Ottoman said SC-55 is in the center of a more than 1,000 km long oil and gas fairway from fields off Brunei and Sarawak to Ottoman’s undeveloped Calauit field north of Palawan. SC-55 has several play types, including a string of reefs on trend with Marantao and deepwater Miocene Pagasa turbidite sand targets, Ottoman said.
Tunisia
TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co., Naersnes, Norway, mobilized a vessel to acquire 600 sq km of multiclient 3D seismic data on the 4,100 sq km El Louza block in the Mediterranean.
MedOil PLC, London, said the survey is designed to accurately map the oil volume potential of the M’Sela-1 oil discovery (see map, OGJ, July 18, 2005, p. 32). It will also cover four separate exploration prospects and a potentially large stratigraphic trap in the “Isis formation” that tested oil in the discovery well and was the producing stratum in nearby Isis oil field.
M’Sela tested 1,200 b/d of 34° gravity oil from one reservoir and 118 b/d of 16° gravity oil from a deeper reservoir. Permit interests are MedOil 95% and TGS-NOPEC 5%.
MedOil is also negotiating with Maltese authorities for a 1-year extension of its exploration study area.
Alabama
Operators completed shale gas wells in adjacent counties in the Black Warrior basin of western Alabama.
A unit of Dominion Exploration & Production, Richmond, Va., gauged 64 Mcfd of gas from Mississippian Floyd shale open hole at an undisclosed depth at a well in 27-13s-4e, St. Clair County.
The well is about ¾ mile north-northeast of a discovery well at which the Dominion unit gauged 233 Mcfd from Floyd/Conasauga at 5,206-5,592 ft, reported the Southeastern Oil Review, Jackson, Miss.
Meanwhile, a unit of Denbury Resources Inc., Plano, Tex., gauged gas at the rate of 80 Mcfd from a horizontal hole in Floyd at a well with a proposed bottomhole location in 29-17s-16w, Lamar County. The producing interval is at 5,350-6,820 ft measured depth.
Montana
Coastal Petroleum Co., Apalachicola, Fla., plans to twin Montana’s only well to produce from Mississippian Lodgepole.
Coastal acquired by farmout the right to twin the Evaline 1-18, in 18-30n-45e, Valley County. That well produced from the lower edge of a Lodgepole reef and went on production at 1,508 b/d of oil in December 2002 before drawing in water.
The twin will target the higher top of the reef farther from the water contact. The existing surface facilities can immediately process the oil. Other participants are Helis Oil & Gas LLC, New Orleans, and Oil for America, both private entities (OGJ, May 29, 2000, p. 33).
Coastal may participate in two additional wells involving other Lodgepole reef prospects within 1 mile of the existing Lodgepole producer.
Coastal has identified and is highgrading a large number of Lodgepole reef prospects on 137,163 net acres in its Valley County, Mont., Assembly. The company has obtained four state drilling permits. Other prospective formations are Eagle, Judith River, and Bakken shale.
