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Exploration contractor Fugro-Geoteam AS, Oslo, has disclosed the availability of nonexclusive seismic data for Nicaragua`s Caribbean continental shelf, ahead of a bidding round expected to open in early 2000.
The licensing round will be Nicar- agua`s first, and it marks the first time the play has been open to the international petroleum industry since the 1970s.
Nicaragua passed new petroleum legislation in March 1998 to facilitate licensing.
Fugro-Geoteam acquired 3,097 line km of 2D seismic data in shallow water off Nicaragua`s east coast.
The package on offer incorporates eight earlier wells and will be available to potential bidders in August-September.
The contractor said initial processing shows features with potential for structural and stratigraphic trapping. Several of these have amplitude anomalies suggesting the possibility of hydrocarbon entrapment.
"Previous exploration," said Fugro-Geoteam, "has established the presence of a Tertiary succession of up to 4,000 m, with good quality clastic and carbonate reservoirs, some of which have tested oil and gas. Geochemistry indicates that the oil is of Tertiary origin and from sources closely linked to the reservoirs.
"The presence of a Cretaceous succession with a separate, mature hydrocarbon system is known from offshore drilling in neighboring Honduras and from outcrop on the Coco River, which forms the Honduras-Nicaragua border."
The main objective is a 2,000 m thick rudistid carbonate unit outcropping along the Coco River, with heavy oil stain under a shale seal: "It is expected that this succession will extend into Nicaragua`s offshore. So far, exploration drilling in Nicaragua has been confined to the Tertiary."
