Area Drilling

April 17, 2000
SNH extended to June 30 the closing date of its third licensing round.

Cameroon

SNH extended to June 30 the closing date of its third licensing round.

The sale consists of two blocks in the deep offshore part of the Douala/Kribi-Campo basin and two blocks in the Logone Birni basin.

Colombia

BP Amoco signed an exploration contract covering the 156,000-acre Niscota block in Casanare Department north of giant Cusiana and Cupiagua oil fields in the Llanos basin.

Niscota covers 23.8% of the former Piedemonte block. The company relinquished the rest in return for more favorable contract terms.

BP Amoco is to spend $50 million the next 3 years on the block, which has complex geology and a rugged surface that requires helicopter access. Initial work calls for acquiring and processing 100 sq km of 3D seismic and 25 km of 2D data over a structure north of Niscota. Later the company is to acquire more 3D data and drill two wildcats.

Ecopetrol classed Niscota with Occidental of Colombia's pending Gibraltar wildcat on the 116,000-acre Siriri association contract, 25% of the former Samore block, as the country's two most important exploration prospects. Ecopetrol sized Gibraltar potential at 1.3 billion bbl (OGJ, Apr. 10, 2000, Newsletter).

Egypt

Apache Corp., Houston, gauged more gas and condensate in a second zone at its Akik-1X discovery in the western desert midway between Shams field and Alexandria.

Lower Cretaceous Alam el Bueb flowed 26 MMcfd of gas and 2,366 bc/d on a 1-in. choke with 1,700 psi wellhead pressure. Upper Cretaceous Upper Alamein dolomite at 8,112-60 ft flowed 23.4 MMcfd of gas and 1,685 b/d of condensate in February.

Finding AEB productive on the upthrown side of a major fault system presents similar opportunities along other east-west faults extending northeastward on the 3-million-acre block into the Mediterranean, the company said.

Apache 2/3 and Repsol 1/3 identified Akik from a 116-sq-mile land 3D seismic survey and plan to conduct a 270-sq-mile near-shore marine 3D survey to confirm a half-dozen prospects and leads in shallow water. The Akik structure is a high-relief, four-way-dip closure at the reservoir horizon more than 1,000 ft high to a downdip, fault-separated well that produced oil at noncommercial rates from the same formation.

Libya

A Repsol YPF group is boosting production from giant El Sharara field on Block NC-115 in the Murzuk basin toward 200,000 b/d.

El Sharara field yielded 100 million bbl from December 1996 through November 1999, when flow averaged 150,000 b/d of 44°-gravity sweet crude. The field is about 100 km east of the Algerian border.

Interests are Repsol 20% and OMV and TotalFinaElf 15% each.

Repsol hiked its Murzuk interest to 40,000 sq km by adding the 12,300 sq km North A block northeast of El Sharara field. Interests there are Repsol 32%, OMV and TotalFinaElf 24% each, and Saga 20%.

Gulf of Mexico

J.M. Huber Corp., Houston, tested an exploratory well in West Cameron 237 field off Louisiana.

The WC 248-4 well flowed 12.5 MMcfd of gas from the lower of two Pliocene-aged sands in which it cut a combined 52 ft of net gas pay.

Other participants are Pierce Junction Petroleum Inc. and Comstock Offshore Energy Inc.

Mississippi

PetroQuest Energy Inc., Lafayette, La., plans a horizontal well, possibly with multiple laterals, to Tuscaloosa marine shale in Amite County.

The 1 Lambert, in irregular section 53-1n-3e, is just north of the Louisiana line and three townships west of Gillsburg oil field. It is to have a 4,000 ft horizontal section at 12,500 ft TVD. The state oil and gas board approved as many as two additional laterals, reports Southeastern Oil Review, Jackson, Miss.

Tennessee

Dr. Robert D. Hatcher Jr. and Dr. Richard T. Williams of the University of Tennessee will help Tengasco Inc., Knoxville, interpret structure in and around Swan Creek oil and gas field, Hancock County (OGJ, Apr. 19, 1999, p. 95).

Thailand

Forest Oil Corp., Denver, plans to drill Phu Din-1, a 1,000-m wildcat on trend with Exxon's Nam Phong gas field in northeastern Thailand.

The company will begin delineation drilling on its 700,000-acre holding if the wildcat is successful.