Afghanistan
Groups led by Dragon Oil PLC and Turkey's state Turkiye Petrolleri AO plan to explore two blocks in northwestern Afghanistan.
Formal signing of exploration and production-sharing contracts that govern the Sanduqli and Mazar-i-Sharif blocks from the Afghan-Tajik Phase 1 oil and gas tender occurred on Oct. 8.
Participating interests of Dragon Oil, TPAO, and the Ghazanfar Group in the two blocks are 40%, 40%, and 20%, respectively.
Dragon Oil will operate Sanduqli and TPAO is operator of Mazar-i-Sharif. Sanduqli covers 2,583 sq km bordering Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and Mazar-i-Sharif has 2,715 sq km adjoining Uzbekistan.
Work commitments in the initial 4-year exploration period include seismic acquisition and interpretation and drilling of two exploratory wells on each block.
Congo (Brazzaville)
SOCO International PLC will take a farmout from a unit of PA Resources AB, Stockholm, to earn a 60% working interest in the Mer Profonde Sud permit offshore Congo (Brazzaville).
The permit comprises the exploration area of the license but excludes Azurite oil field.
In return for carrying certain of PA Resources Congo SA's costs, SOCO will assume a 60% working interest in the exploration area as operator and will drill an exploratory well during the remaining license period.
The well will test a different structural setting and play, identified from recent seismic reprocessing and subsurface reevaluation, from the other wells drilled on the block and targets similar reservoirs that produce in offsetting fields in Congo and Angola-Cabinda.
The transaction is subject to partner and regulatory approvals including both the assignment of the interest to SOCO and renewal into the third and final period of the license. Following approval, the partners would look to drill the well in 2014-15, SOCO said.
Iraq
Kuwait Energy Co. and Dragon Oil PLC have secured a rig from Iraqi Drilling Co. to spud an exploratory well on Block 9 in Iraq's Basra Province in this year's last quarter.
The companies also chose vendors to perform an environmental impact assessment, environment base line survey, and de-mining activities.
The work commitment in the initial 5-year exploratory period includes de-mining, seismic acquisition and interpretation, and drilling one exploratory well. Block interests are Kuwait Energy operator with 70% contractor share and Dragon Oil 30%.
Block terms are a remuneration fee of $6.24/bbl of oil equivalent with no stipulated plateau production target. During the first 5 years the companies are eligible to renew the block for 2 years twice, and they are entitled to 20-year development and production phases extendable by 5 years.
Brazil's Largest FPU EN Route to Campos Basin
Petroleo Brasileiro SA's (Petrobras) P-55 floating production unit is en route to Roncador field in Campos basin offshore Brazil. The FPU, which will be installed in 1,790 m of water, is the largest and the first of its kind entirely built in Brazil. Bureau Veritas is classing the unit. The column-stabilized semisubmersible has a capacity of 180,000 b/d of oil and 6 million cu m/day of gas. It can handle 110 km of subsea flexible lines, 70 km of umbilicals, 17 wells—11 production and 6 water injection—and is built to accommodate 120 people.
In 2007, Petrobras cancelled orders for the construction of the P-55 platform and P-57 floating production, storage, and offloading vessel because of excessive cost (OGJ Online, Feb. 18, 2008). Photo from Bureau Veritas.
Madagascar
Oyster Oil & Gas Ltd., Vancouver, BC, has acquired from Candax Energy Inc., Toronto, a 10% working interest in Block 1101 onshore northwestern Madagascar.
Operated by Afren PLC, which holds the other 90% working interest, Block 1101 covers 3.7 million acres. Since 2006 airborne gravity and magnetic surveys and 430 line-km of 2D seismic have been acquired as well as extensive geological field work and mapping undertaken on the block.
A number of substantial prospects and leads have been identified mainly in the potential Triassic and Jurassic sandstone reservoir formations, Oyster said.
Oyster Oil & Gas also holds a production-sharing contract with the government of Djibouti with respect to four blocks totaling 3.5 million acres onshore and offshore in Djibouti.
Turkmenistan
Dragon Oil PLC said its oil production averaged 74,300 b/d in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from Lam and Zdanov fields in the 950 sq km Cheleken contract area at the eastern end of the Apsheron ridge in the Caspian Sea offshore Turkmenistan.
The company produced 7% more oil in the quarter than in the same period of 2012 and sold 3.2 million bbl, up 14%. It exported all of the oil through Azerbaijan.
The company is seeing positive oil production responses from water injection for pressure maintenance and artificial lift via jet pumps.
A water injection pilot in the Lam 75 area began in June, and the company plans to expand water injection to two or three other platforms in 2014. It installed jet pumps in June in two wells on the Lam 13 platform that led to a production increase of 500-700 b/d/well. It is adding a jet pump to a third well and intends to install them on other platforms next year.
Dragon Oil let a contract in September to quadruple its onshore crude oil storage capacity to an undisclosed figure with completion of three large tanks set for fourth-quarter 2015.
It seeks to award a contract in first-half 2014 to add a 30-in. trunkline from Lam field to the central processing facility, and partial replacement of the two existing 12-in. pipelines is expected to finish in the same period. It expects to award a contract near yearend for engineering, procurement, and construction of a gas treatment plant that will take 2-3 years.
Alaska
Miller Energy Resources Inc., Huntsville, Tenn., said production from the Osprey platform in Alaska's Cook Inlet is producing at more than 2,500 b/d of oil equivalent as the result of the RU-5B sidetrack well being brought online at 250 b/d of oil.
Oil cut is improving daily, and the well had been producing 100% water before the sidetrack was drilled, the company said. Final measured depth of the sidetrack is 15,750 ft.
Following the RU-5B completion, Rig 35 was skidded to the RU-D1 disposal well location and a work-over successfully completed. This well will provide disposal capacity for mud and cuttings generated from future wells.
Rig 35 is being relocated from Leg 3 to Leg 2 of the Osprey platform in preparation to drill the RU-9 well, which targets the southern stepout of the Redoubt Shoal structure. RU-9, to spud by yearend, is intended to recover oil from a large four-way structure 2.5 miles southwest of the platform.
Meanwhile, the company has begun completing the Sword-1 well after drilling to 18,475 ft MD and setting 5-in. casing. While drilling the well encountered 11 third party reported hydrocarbon shows that include shows in the Tyonek gas sands, the Tyonek-G which is thought to be oil-bearing, and the Hemlock oil zone.
With many identified potential zones behind pipe, the company plans to initially perforate 168 ft in the liquid hydrocarbon zones and 66 ft in the gas-bearing zones. Third party reserve reports show 950,000 bbl of oil based on 43 ft of net pay. The company believes Sword-1 has the potential to double West McArthur River field's reserves while providing a launch pad for drilling into Sabre, an even larger identified prospect.
Over the next several months, the company plans to initially test and produce the Hemlock formation followed by the shallower zones and will announce results once completion procedures have been performed. The rig on Sword-1 will be moved to West McArthur River Unit-8.
With state approval of the Otter Unit as a result of the company's appeal, drilling activity was suspended on Olson Creek-1 well in order to free up Rig 34 for mobilization back to the Otter Unit to resume a time-sensitive work commitment. The company in November plans to deepen Otter-1.
Colorado
Nighthawk Energy PLC has farmed out 4,572 acres of its 100% owned Jolly Ranch project in Lincoln County, Colo., in the Denver basin to an undisclosed Denver farmee.
The farmout calls for the farmee to earn a 50% working interest by drilling at least three vertical wells to the unconventional Pennsylvanian Cherokee and Marmaton horizons near Limon, about 15 miles south of Nighthawk's Arikaree Creek oil field.
Drilling is to start by Apr. 30, 2014, and the farmee will carry Nighthawk's 50% working interest through to the tanks. The farmee has two wells that produce from the same two horizons on adjacent acreage.
The well locations will be mutually agreed and will benefit from the farmee's recent 30 sq mile 3D seismic survey covering the farmout acreage and adjacent farmee licenses. Nighthawk and the farmee will exchange 3D seismic information.