China
CNOOC Ltd. said its parent China National Offshore Oil Corp. signed a production-sharing contract covering Block 05/31 in western Bohai with Smart Oil Investment Ltd.
The PSC calls for Smart Oil to shoot 3D seismic and drill exploratory wells at its sole expense. The block covers 270 sq km in 5-15 m of water at the junction of the Qikou sag and Nanpu sag. CNOOC has the right to participate for as much as 51% working interest in any commercial discovery.
Congo (Brazzaville)
Eni's Eni Congo unit will operate the Ngolo block for state Ste. Nationale des Petroles du Congo in the frontier Cuvette basin 350 km northeast of Brazzaville.
Congo's hydrocarbons ministry recently assigned the remote 16,000+ sq km block to SNPC. Eni will carry out remote sensing and geophysical surveys in exploring the basin's Mesozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary geological sequences during the next 10 years.
Eni and SNPC have successfully explored jointly onshore and offshore Congo, where Eni has 110,000 b/d of equity oil production.
Indonesia
Units of RH Petrogas Ltd., Singapore, expects to place on production soon its Klalin-14 development well on the Kepala Burung PSC in the Sorong area of West Papua, Indonesia.
Depending on gas demand, the initial rate is expected to be 3 MMscfd of gas and 150 b/d of condensate. The well encountered 81 ft of total net pay.
Petrogas (Basin) Ltd. and RHP Salawati Basin BV, in coordination with Indonesia's state SKK Migas, tested the well at as much as 9.8 MMscfd and 220 b/d on a 24/64-in. choke from two zones.
Klalin-14 was drilled to further develop the large Klalin gas-condensate field in the Arar area. Two more wells are to be drilled by yearend. The PSC averaged 6,168 boe/d of in 2012.
RH Petrogas through the two subsidiaries has a combined 60% working interest in the PSC.
Madagascar
South Atlantic Petroleum (Sapetro) has let contracts to Petroleum Geo Services, Oslo, to shoot six 3D seismic surveys in the central Mozambique Channel on blocks offshore Madagascar (see map, OGJ, Aug. 9, 2004, p. 33).
The full program will total more than 9,000 sq km of 3D coverage on the 52,990 sq km Juan de Nova permit in French territory and the 13,770 sq km Belo Profond permit in Madagascan waters. This follows PGS's 12,500+ line-km 2D broadband seismic, processing, and interpretation.
Acquisition of 3D is to start this month in 1,800-3,200 m of water. PGS will shoot 7,000 sq km in Juan de Nova and 2,000 sq km in Belo Profond with three separate surveys in each permit.
The permits contain a large portion of new deepwater exploration province with extensive oil-prone source rocks. The permits also have shallower burial depths than the Rovuma Delta gas province to the north along the Davie Fracture Zone, site of Eni SPA and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. gas discoveries offshore Mozambique.
Tunisia
DualEx Energy International Inc., Calgary, cased and will attempt to complete the BHN-1 exploratory well on the Bouhajla permit in northeastern Tunisia. The well cut 245 m of Cretaceous Abiod chalky limestone reservoir, and during drilling elevated levels of methane-butane were noted on the mud log with indications of both open and healed fractures in cuttings.
Last month the company was able to source a pulse-neutron logging tool previously unavailable in Tunisia to determine Abiod pore saturations. The results indicate elevated hydrocarbon saturations throughout the Abiod section, with no indication of having intersected a water contact.
Typically, Abiod reservoirs rely on naturally occurring fractures for hydrocarbon production. The nonfractured Abiod section in BHN-1 has low permeability, but several zones of enhanced permeability due to apparent natural fractures and faulting have been interpreted from the logs and confirm expectations based on 3D seismic interpretation of the Bouhajla North structure.
DualEx is focused on completing and testing the zones of enhanced permeability, likely starting in November. It will perforate two zones near the bottom of the logged interval (6 m of perforations for each) for analysis. It will acid wash the perforations followed by an acid squeeze into the formation. The BHN-1 completion protocol will be similar to that employed by the operator of Sidi el Kilani oil field 25 km east of BHN-1.
