Mobil Exploration & Producing Peru, the operator of Block 78 in Peru's Madre de Dios basin, will undertake a series of studies in the northwestern portion of the block and evaluate drill cuttings from the Karene 3X well, drilled by Cities Service Co. (later acquired by Occidental Petroleum Corp.) in 1976. On completing the 6-month study, Mobil will either move into the third exploration stage of its program or pull out of the area.
The third stage requires Mobil to drill a second exploration well or acquire 300 km of 2D seismic in the block's western sector.
Mobil estimates it has spent close to $85 million in the second stage of the block's exploration program, which ended Mar. 26. The company is exploring the block in partnership with Elf Petroleum BV and Esso Exploration & Production Peru Ltd. under a contract signed in 1996. Each company holds one third of the contract.
Mobil last year made a gas find with its first exploration well, Candamo X-1, in the eastern sector of Block 78, a sensitive rain forest area. Although Perupetro said Mobil had made a significant find, details were not made public, and the company said it needed more tests to evaluate the discovery, made less prospective by the low permeability and porosity of the structure and the remoteness of the area.
In accordance with the terms of its contract, Mobil, on completing the second exploration stage, has returned 377,000 hectares of its 1.5 million hectare block to state agency Perupetro. The area will become part of the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park.