EXPLORATION/DEVELOPMENT BRIEFS

A subsidiary of Santos Ltd. let a contract to Seadrill Ltd., Oslo, for the Offshore Resolute jack up to drill off Bangladesh.

Seadrill said the assignment will have a minimum duration of 130 days under a contract for three firm wells plus two optional wells. Operations are to begin in early third quarter 2011 in direct continuation of the rig's existing contract.

The estimated contract value is $17.5 million for the firm 130-day minimum period. Santos will operate the wells on Block 16 in the Bay of Bengal (OGJ Online, May 27, 2011).

Canacol Energy Ltd., Calgary, will take farmouts from C&C Energia Ltd. to part of the operator's working interest in the Andaquies and Coati exploration and production contracts in Colombia's Putumayo basin.

The contracts are royalty contracts and will add three light oil exploratory wells to Canacol's four-well exploration program in Colombia in 2011. C&C Energia will continue as operator of both blocks.

Upon Canacol paying 72% of the cost associated with shooting seismic and drilling one exploratory well it will earn 36% of the operator's 90% working interest in Andaquies E&P contract. Upon paying 80% of the cost associated with shooting seismic and drilling one exploratory well it will earn 40% of the operator's 100% working interest in Coati.

C&C Energia will drill the three exploratory wells in the second half of 2011, two on Andaquies and one on Coati, pending approvals.

Noble Energy Inc., Houston, exited from Ecuador having received $97 million in compensation to transfer its assets to various government-affiliated entities.

Compensation was received for Amistad field and the Block 3 production sharing contract in the Gulf of Guayaquil that was terminated by the government on Nov. 25, 2010. In addition, total proceeds included an amount for the assignment of the Machala Power Electricity concession and its associated assets. Noble Energy previously owned these assets with a 100% working interest.

The company's net book value for the assets totaled approximately $68 million.

Hess Corp. and Premier Oil PLC encountered hydrocarbon shows but no reservoir quality sandstones at the NRS-2a deepwater exploratory well on North Red Sea Block 1 in the Red Sea off Egypt.

The well went to 5,200 m in 700 m of water 65 km north of Quseir on the Cherry prospect targeting a Cretaceous Nubian play. The 2.3 million acre block contains numerous Gulf of Suez-style Cretaceous prospects and leads and Miocene leads and has 3D seismic coverage. Block interests are Hess 80% and Premier 20%.

The companies will integrate well results with geologic, seismic, and engineering data to judge whether alternate opportunities exist on the block, Premier said. Another operator was negotiating to use the Stena Forth drillship until late 2011, Hess said.

Hess Corp. said the Paradise-1 exploratory well off Ghana encountered an estimated 490 net ft of oil and gas-condensate pay in three intervals. The company filed a notice of discovery with the minister of energy for the well, which went to 16,436 ft in 6,038 ft of water on the Deepwater Tano-Cape Three Points license. Hess will evaluate well results and work with Ghana National Petroleum Corp. and the government to plan appraisal drilling.

Hess said the well encountered the hydrocarbons in Upper Cretaceous-aged clastic reservoirs. Paradise is in the central part of the block south of the Jubilee and Odum discoveries. Hess is license operator with 90% interest, and GNPC has 10%.

A Kosmos Energy group said its Banda-1 exploratory well in the West Cape Three Points license off Ghana discovered light oil in thick but poor quality Cenomanian-aged turbidite reservoirs.

Banda-1 is the group's first wildcat designed specifically to investigate Cenomanian potential on the block. Finding light oil in a thick sandstone package is encouraging, and the group will integrate the well results into the regional geologic model to reevaluate the remaining potential in other prospects at this stratigraphic level on its acreage.

Banda-1, 9.6 km southeast of the Odum discovery in the eastern part of the license, encountered the Cenomanian turbidites in a gross vertical interval of 300 m that contains more than 100 m of low-porosity sandstone and 3 m of 40° gravity oil pay.

Banda-1 went to 4,580 m in 921 m of water. It will be suspended for potential future use. The rig will move to resume drilling Makore-1, which is targeting Turonian-age reservoirs in the south of the West Cape Three Points license. In April, another rig drilled the upper section of Makore.

Cairn Energy PLC's Capricorn Oil Ltd. unit has spud exploratory wells on two blocks off West Greenland.

They are the AT-7 well in the Atammik block in 905 m of water 160 km off Nuuk and the LF-7 well in the Lady Franklin in 989 m of water block 300 km off Nuuk (see map, OGJ, Aug. 24, 2009, p. 38). The Leiv Eiriksson fifth generation semisubmersible and the Ocean Rig Corcovado sixth generation drillship are handling the drilling.

Supporting the two dynamically positioned rigs are four helicopters, six ice management vessels, two emergency response standby vessels, three supply vessels, one multirole vessel, one freighter, and two wareships for accommodating crews if necessary, Cairn said.

Cairn, with an operating office in Nuuk, has drilled three of the total nine exploration wells drilled off Greenland. Previously five wells were drilled in the 1970s and one in 2000.

OMV AG said good quality oil flowed to surface following a drawdown test at its Bina Bawi-3 exploratory well in Iraq's Kurdistan Region. Drilling continued to deeper objectives.

OMV, operator of the Bina Bawi block with 36% interest, said the well encountered the hydrocarbons in one of the primary reservoir targets. It did not disclose the depth, age, or name of the formation.

OMV has direct stakes in five blocks in the Kurdistan Region. Besides Bina Bawi, it operates the Shorish and Mala Omar blocks with 100% interest. The company said it participated in three exploratory wells that were drilled and completed in 2010 and had two exploratory successes on the Sarta and Rovi blocks.

Pearl Petroleum Co. Ltd., in which OMV holds a 10% interest, ramped up gross production in Khor Mor field to 174 MMcfd of gas and 8,500 b/d of condensate in 2010. Through Khor Mor and Chemchemal gas fields, Pearl gives OMV access to significant gas reserves and contingent resources including condensate and liquefied petroleum gas.

WesternZagros Resources Ltd., Calgary, said it has made an oil discovery in the Miocene Jeribe formation at the Sarqala-1 exploratory well in Iraq's Kurdistan Region.

The Jeribe formation flowed light, 40° gravity oil at an unstimulated, stabilized rate of 6,000 b/d during the 24 hr of the initial flow period. This rate was achieved through a 36⁄64-in. choke at 3,900 psi flowing wellhead pressure. No water was produced. Testing continued to evaluate the well's full flow capability and its potential for early production.

WesternZagros said it was starting a test program after drilling a sidetrack through the targeted path in the Jeribe formation to a total depth of 3,893 m. Drilling shows and log results indicate a potential gross pay interval of more than 55 m in this zone, the company said.

International Petroleum Ltd., Perth, encountered oil at the second well at its Krasnoleninskiy project in Western Siberia, Russia.

Preliminary analysis of core taken from Well No. 2 indicate that 23 m of Bazhenov formation were penetrated with fractured core over 1.8 m. This layer will be evaluated with wireline logging and then considered for testing later. In the Upper Tyumen formation, 15.4 m of oil-saturated core has been recovered at 2,703-30 m.

Meanwhile, a drillstem test on Well No. 1 produced 1 cu m of pure oil during a 2 hr limited drawdown test on the Upper Tyumen formation. A similar DST on Well No. 2 produced 4 cu m of oil and mud filtrate during a 2 hr limited drawdown test on the Upper Tyumen formation.

The company said it still has a number of horizons to penetrate and evaluate in both wells.

A group led by Tullow Oil PLC will drill the Ntorya-1 wildcat in September-October 2011 on the Mtwara block in the southern part of the Ruvuma PSA in Tanzania.

The same group drilled Likonde-1 in 2010 on the Lindi block, which forms the northern part of the Ruvuma PSA. Likonde-1 went to 3,647 m and cut two sandstone intervals with a combined thickness of more than 820 ft that contain evidence of residual oil and gas. Likonde-1 was abandoned due to high gas influx.

Ntorya-1 is 14 km south of Likonde-1. Planned total depth is 2,020 m to target the same high-quality Lower Tertiary reservoir sands encountered at Likonde-1. Seismic interpretation places the sands at Ntorya-1 structurally updip relative to Likonde-1.

OMV AG said its operated Habban oil field on Block S2 in western Yemen's Shabwa Province averaged a net 6,600 b/d of oil equivalent in 2010, up from 6,300 boe/d in 2009.

The company drilled eight development wells in the field last year. The project also consists of central processing facilities with 30,000 boe/d of gross capacity and a 120-km oil export pipeline scheduled to come on stream in 2012.

To strengthen its acreage position around Habban, OMV acquired exploration rights to nearby blocks 70 and 86. The Tagina South-1 exploratory well was dry.

OMV initially credited the 2005 Habban discovery with 50 million bbl of proved reserves and 170 million bbl of proved and probable reserves (OGJ Online, Jan. 19, 2006).

CAOF potential at the Kenai Loop-1 well near Cannery Loop gas field is 33.2 MMcfd, much higher than expectations, said Buccaneer Energy Ltd., Sydney.

The high AOFP demonstrates the excellent permeability and porosity of the two Upper Tyonek zones perforated and tested, Buccaneer said.

The long-term deliverable production rate from the well has been estimated as 6-8 MMcfd, which is expected to hold for 2 years and will facilitate a favorable gas sales contract. The expected floor price of gas in south-central Alaska is $7/Mcf. Upside potential exists in the area from 14 other zones with a combined 423 ft of gross pay not yet tested. Buccaneer's contiguous block in the area is more than 8,900 acres.

The company is finalizing a development program for the Kenai Loop project that will include drilling Kenai Loop-2 well, initiating production, shooting seismic, and further drilling.

Colorado's vintage Florence-Canon City oil field averaged 631 b/d of oil in the quarter ended Mar. 31, said Comet Ridge Ltd., Brisbane.

The Florence project has produced more than 300,000 bbl of oil as of March 2011 (OGJ Online, Nov. 7, 2006). The company is completing and testing five wells drilled in the current quarter.

The oil formation is mainly the Cretaceous Pierre shale at less than 4,000 ft. The company holds its acreage, in Fremont County 25 miles west of Pueblo, through Pine Ridge Oil & Gas LLC, Denver.

Meanwhile, Comet Ridge Resources LLC signed a binding agreement in mid-May to sell its interest in the Sweet Pea exploration area in the southern Denver-Julesburg basin to an undisclosed buyer for $28.5 million. Comet Ridge Ltd. has a 17.257% equity interest in Comet Ridge Resources. The exploration area lies northeast of CRR's Florence field.

Warren Resources Inc., New York, will drill one exploratory well in 2011 for oil in Cretaceous Niobrara shale in the eastern Washakie basin of southwestern Wyoming.

Warren owns deep rights below its Atlantic Rim coalbed methane project that include an approximate 80,000 net acre position in southeastern Sweetwater County that is potentially prospective for the Niobrara shale.

Warren estimates that its Niobrara shale is at depths of 4,000 to 10,000 ft. As many as 200 horizontal Niobrara development well locations are approved under the 2007 Atlantic Rim federal environmental impact statement.

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