Benin
The Ministry of Mines, Energy and Water launched a late 2006 bid round by reoffering two land and two deepwater blocks.
Coastal blocks A and B and deepwater blocks 5 and 6 are in the Benin coastal sedimentary basin. Bid deadline is Nov. 30, 2006.
Gambia
Buried Hill Energy (Cyprus) PLC, London, said its Gambia subsidiary entered into 30-year licenses on the A1 Alhamdulilah and A4 blocks in the Atlantic off Gambia.
The acreage, separated from Mauritania by the Senegalese coast, is considered to have high potential for discoveries, the company said.
Kazakhstan
Big Sky Energy Corp., Calgary, said its Kazakh subsidiary plans 3-month production tests of as many as three zones at a pool discovery on the Dauletaly Block in Atyrau Province 265 km east of Atyrau.
Logs from KoZhaN LLP’s DLT-33 well, drilled to TD 875 m to test Lower Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic sands, showed four oil-bearing sands 1.5 to 10 m thick with 28-34% porosity and 70-82% oil saturation.
Syria
Gulfsands Petroleum PLC, Houston, plans to spud Tigris-1 on the Tigris prospect in Block 26 underlying Souedieh oil and gas field. The vertical well is projected to 4,500 m.
Tigris-1 will be the second well to penetrate the Carboniferous and Devonian aged reservoirs on the structure, said 50% partner Emerald Energy PLC, London. Syrian Petroleum Co.’s S1100 well 1 km northeast of Tigris-1 found a substantial hydrocarbon column in 1994, according to independent interpretation of wireline logs.
Gulf of Mexico
Petroleum Geo-Services ASA is to begin gathering 9,345 sq km of multiclient 3D seismic data in the Gulf of Mexico starting in October 2006.
The survey, with BP America Inc. as the primary financial and technical partner, will cover 401 deepwater blocks in the Garden Banks, Keathley Canyon, Green Canyon, and Walker Ridge areas. The project has above-average prefunding for the Gulf of Mexico, PGS said.
The Ramform Viking and two other vessels will use state-of-the-art wide azimuth towed streamer technology. Acquisition will take 12 months, and data will be available for the March 2008 federal lease sale.
Ghana
The government awarded Tullow Oil PLC, London, operated interests in the Shallow-water and Deepwater Tano blocks along the marine boundary with Ivory Coast. Tullow took a farmout to acquire a 22.9% interest in the adjacent West Cape Three Points offshore license. Its other interests are 85.5% in the Shallow-water Tano block and 49.95% in Deepwater Tano.
The company, which sees Albian and Upper Cretaceous potential on the Tano blocks, will try to commercialize one or more of three undeveloped oil and gas discoveries on Shallow-water Tano.
The three licenses are in the Greater Ivoirian basin on trend with Espoir oil and gas field off Ivory Coast, in which Tullow holds 21.33% interest.
Mississippi
Odyssey Petroleum Corp., Vancouver, BC, reported a recompletion in Pelahatchie field, Rankin County, that flowed at the rate of 450 b/d of 48° gravity oil with 420 psi pressure on a 20/64-in. choke.
Producing zone is Cretaceous Rodessa at 10,498-508 ft.
The well is to be produced on a 7.5/64-in. choke at an anticipated rate of 120-150 b/d. The company plans to drill new wells and recomplete more wells in the field, which has produced from multiple formations from 7,500 ft to 17,000 ft.
Texas - South
EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., Calgary, plans to spud an exploratory well to overpressured Cretaceous Pearsall shale shortly in Maverick County of South Texas, said 50-50 partner The Exploration Co., San Antonio.
Historic recovery has averaged 475 MMcf/well from 49 vertical Pearsall wells, almost all of them in Los Cuatros field, where Pearsall lies at about 6,800 ft. Those wells were drilled without benefit of 3D seismic data or advanced drilling and fracturing techniques, TXCO said.
Meanwhile, TXCO is refurbishing a 900-hp drilling rig rated to 9,500 ft and plans to field it shortly in the Maverick basin, where it is capable of operating in all company-operated plays.
