Area Drilling

March 22, 1999
Agencia Nacional do Petroleo cleared Schlumberger Geco-Prakla to conduct a 60,000 km 2D regional seismic, gravity, and magnetic survey in six offshore basins covered by the first licensing round. The company plans to use three vessels for the surveys in the Campos, Santos, Espirito Santo, Jequitinhonha, Camamu, and Almada basins (see map, OGJ, Jan. 25, 1999, p. 38). Completion is set for yearend 1999. The first phase of a Niger delta regional seismic data compilation is complete.

Brazil

Agencia Nacional do Petroleo cleared Schlumberger Geco-Prakla to conduct a 60,000 km 2D regional seismic, gravity, and magnetic survey in six offshore basins covered by the first licensing round.

The company plans to use three vessels for the surveys in the Campos, Santos, Espirito Santo, Jequitinhonha, Camamu, and Almada basins (see map, OGJ, Jan. 25, 1999, p. 38). Completion is set for yearend 1999.

Nigeria

The first phase of a Niger delta regional seismic data compilation is complete.

The survey comprises 7,600 km of seismic data and 216 strategic wells extending from near Cameroon west to Benin City and the area off Lagos. The grid extends from north of the delta to shallow shelf waters.

Spectrum Energy and Information Technology Ltd., Woking, U.K., and Houston, and Mabon Ltd., Lagos, led the project on behalf of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

Arizona

Consulting engineers estimated 66 bcf of helium in place in Unit Number 1, which covers 165,000 acres in Apache County, Ariz., and 100,000 acres in Catron County, N.M., says Ridgeway Petroleum Corp., Calgary, unit operator.

The helium is in addition to 15.8 tcf of carbon dioxide in place (OGJ, Mar. 8, 1999, p. 87).

California

Plains Resources Inc., Houston, plans to more fully develop the Lower Miocene Pyramid Hill formation in Mount Poso field, acquired from Aera Energy LLC for $7.7 million.

The Kern County field, discovered in 1926, has yielded about 200 million bbl of oil, about 90% of it from Lower Miocene Vedder at about 1,800 ft.

Current output averages 1,200 b/d of 15-17° gravity oil, including about 500 b/d from Vedder, but most Vedder production is to cease within a year.

Plains will aggressively exploit Pyramid Hill at about 1,500 ft by recompleting existing wells and drilling as many as 200 new wells. The company estimates it might ultimately recover 8 million bbl more oil from Pyramid Hill, which has produced about 3 million bbl.

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