Cuba
Sherritt International Corp., Toronto, plans to drill one exploratory well and 11 development wells as part of its companywide $150 million budget for 2008.
Sherritt expects its 2008 gross working interest oil production in Cuba to be consistent with the 2007 average of 30,637 b/d, which was steady with 2006 output. The fourth quarter 2007 average was 31,453 b/d.
The company signed one production-sharing agreement for a contiguous block in Cuba in 2007 and in early 2008 was negotiating terms and conditions of an enhanced oil recovery concession and several exploration blocks.
India
Oilex Ltd., Sydney, will try to establish oil and gas production in abandoned Cambay gas field in Gujarat, India.
The company has spud the first of six appraisal and development wells to gather lithological and fluid data from Oligocene and Eocene formations.
Four of the wells will also test deeper targets at the base of the Eocene section and fractured Deccan basalts that are oil reservoirs on the Gujarat State Petroleum Corp.-operated Tarapur block to the north.
Oil & Natural Gas Corp. discovered Cambay in 1957 and developed it as a gas field that produced 52 bcf until shut-in. Best estimate of hydrocarbons in place in the OS II and EP IV sandstones only total 48 million stb of oil, 14 million stb of condensate, and 356 bcf of gas. Working interests are Oilex 45% and GSPC 55%.
Nicaragua
Norwood Resources Ltd., Vancouver, BC, drilled a stratigraphic test to 650 ft at Maderas Negras to assist with casing design for Maderas Negras-1, projected to at least 6,500 ft in the Sandino basin onshore Nicaragua.
The well logged oil shows at 75-650 ft and a weak gas show at 650 ft. The deeper well is to spud by the end of March.
A petrophysical interpretation by Schlumberger identified prospective intervals in the Paleocene Brito formation that were not previously identified or tested in the 2007 program, Norwood said.
The Maderas Negras-1 wellsite is 2.75 miles north and 3,000 ft updip of the San Bartolo well.
Nigeria
Addax Petroleum Corp., Calgary, successfully appraised the Kita Marine oil discovery off southeastern Nigeria, raising the possibility of the first development and production in the northeastern part of OML 123.
The KTM-6 well, 2 km southwest of the discovery well drilled in late 2005, cut 173 ft of gross oil column in four zones. The wells penetrated adjacent and separate fault blocks.
KTM-6’s results included individual gross oil columns of 94 ft and 52 ft at depths between 5,350 and 6,300 ft subsea.
Flow tests were not run, but pressure and fluid sample data indicate medium gravity oil to be present, consistent with the 30° gravity Antan blend produced from OML123, the company said.
The discovery well cut 100 ft of gross oil column in three main zones and flow-tested 1,000 b/d of 28° gravity oil.
Kita Marine is in 10 m of water near the Cameroon marine border and 10 km northeast of the North Oron/Oron West producing facility.
Alberta
Trident Exploration Corp., Calgary, said its 2007 net production in western Canada averaged 98 MMcfd, 37% higher than in 2006.
Trident previously said 51% of its production is coalbed methane from the Mannville formation, 44% is CBM from the Horseshoe Canyon formation, and 5% comes from conventional reservoirs. Part of the Mannville output is from western Canada’s first commercial Mannville CBM field.
Trident participated in the drilling of 157 new wells or horizontal legs in 2007 and connected 175 new wells or laterals to production.
The company has more than 770,000 net acres in Alberta and British Columbia and more than 537,600 net acres in the US. It is also involved in Montney shale gas exploration in Northeast British Columbia.
Compton Petroleum Corp., Calgary, said its first horizontal well in the Lower Cretaceous Basal Quartz sandstone formation in the deep basin south of Calgary is flow-testing at 6 MMcfd of gas. It is to be tied-in within 2 weeks.
The company performed multistage fracs in a 700-m lateral in the well in 9-17-17-29w4, is drilling a second Basal Quartz horizontal well, and has identified 15 follow-up locations.
One horizontal well could reduce the need for downspacing by replacing two to three vertical wells in the Hooker resource play, which has been developed mostly with one to two vertical wells per square mile, Compton said.
As presently delineated, the play extends over four townships where Compton is operator with an average 85% working interest. Eighty vertical wells are on production.
New Mexico
The Santa Fe County Commission in late February banned oil and gas drilling in central New Mexico’s Galisteo basin for 1 year or more.
Tecton Energy LLC, private Houston operator, has leased 65,000 acres in this area of the Rio Grande rift and proposed to drill near the basin’s only producing well, Black Oil Inc. Ferrill-1, completed in 1986.
The well initially pumped 86 b/d of 44° gravity oil from a small faulted slice of a Tocito sand stringer at 2,740 ft in a thrusted fault block in the Cretaceous section. TD is 3,696 ft.
The commission also plans to draft new oil and gas regulations by late 2008.
Texas – East
TXCO Resources Inc., San Antonio, paid $19.6 million to undisclosed sellers to boost its holding in Fort Trinidad field to 36,498 gross acres, or 20,526 net acres, from 18,000 gross acres, or 8,000 net acres.
The acquisition included 8.1 bcfe of proved reserves at yearend. The company is drilling a second well, plans to add a second rig in April, and just placed its first Cretaceous Glen Rose shoal gas well on production in the field, in Houston, Madison, and Leon counties.
Besides numerous Cretaceous pay zones, the field is prospective in the downdip Jurassic Bossier formation, the company said.
