Australia
Empire Oil & Gas NL's hopes for the Central Rough Range 1 wildcat on the Exmouth Peninsula have been dashed. The well intersected the main target Birdrong sandstone reservoir below the oil/water contact when compared to the nearby Rough Range 1B success.
Empire has plugged and abandoned the well and is considering a deviated well from either the Central Rough Range 1 or Rough Range 1B location. The aim is intersect the reservoir between the two locations.
Drilling of another structure to the south remains on the schedule. The company also plans to run extended production testing at Rough Range 1B once government approvals are granted.
Brazil
Devon Energy Corp. and Chile's state Sipetrol plan to spud a wildcat on Block BSEAL-4 in the Sergipe-Alagoas basin off northeastern Brazil.
Sipetrol's expenditures on the block are $4 million for seismic data and $6 million in the well, Chilean press reports indicated.
Devon is operator by virtue of its acquisition of PennzEnergy last year.
Czech Republic
Geocan Energy Inc., Calgary, and Czech companies Unigeo a.s. and Ceska Naftarska Spolecnost s.r.o. signed a letter of intent to exploit the 37,000-acre Rostin Block 220 km southeast of Prague.
The environment ministry issued the firms a 4-year oil and gas exploration permit that requires no seismic or drilling commitment. It calls for an initial exploration fee and annual rentals.
The block lies along a main gas pipeline in a proven multizone oil and gas basin. Oil and gas production occurs adjacent to the block, where drilling took place in 1972-85.
The companies will re-evaluate 270 km of 2D seismic and acquire more seismic data.
Namibia
Vanco Energy Co., Houston, plans to run 3D and 2D seismic surveys later this year on its license blocks off West Africa, including 8,931-sq-km License Area 1711 awarded in mid-June.
Block 1711, in the Namibe basin, is partly onshore and adjoins the border with Angola. Its most promising sector, which shows a huge structure, probably Cretaceous in age, is in more than 200 m of water, Vanco said. It is the only license in force off Namibia except the one that contains the Kudu gas accumulation in the Orange basin near the border with South Africa.
The Namibe basin has not been tested off either country. Vanco and Angola's Sonangol are conducting a joint study to develop common plays for future exploration.
Interests are Vanco 88%, National Petroleum Corp. of Namibia 9%, and Pamue Investment Corp. 3%.
Oman
Berkley Petroleum Corp., Calgary, joined a Phillips Petroleum Co. group that plans to explore 4.2-million-acre Block 38 and 4.6-million-acre Block 36 in southwestern Oman.
Berkley said the scope of leads and prospects identified as of mid-May has been postulated at 3-4 billion bbl of recoverable oil in the two areas. It has access to 10,000 km of seismic data, and more than 20 undrilled prospects have been identified. A well is to be spudded on Block 36 in July 2000.
Interests are Phillips 50% and Maersk Oil Oman and Berkley 25% each.
Berkley plans to spend about $15 million (Can.) in Oman over the next 2 years in this, its first venture outside North America.
Romania
Paladin Expro Ltd. and Sterling Resources Ltd., Calgary, acquired 1,600 km of high-resolution 2D seismic data on Black Sea blocks XIII and XV off Romania.
Sterling, with 20% interest, said the main goal of the program was to obtain a regular grid of high-resolution data along the length of the Doina fault terrace in Block XV, which contains the Doina gas discovery. Another objective was to acquire data over a potentially large prospect on Block XIII.
The firms will integrate new and existing data to select a well location for drilling in early 2001.
Arizona
Ridgeway Petroleum Corp., Calgary, said it could ultimately generate $55 million/year or more in emission tax credits from its St. Johns anticline reservoir in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico by producing helium and carbon dioxide and reinjecting the CO2 (OGJ, July 5, 1999, p. 89).
Development of gas volumes necessary to generate this return would require eventual drilling of 583 wells at a cost of $204 million. It would also require installation of gathering, compression, and processing facilities sized to handle 500 MMcfd of inlet gas at the cost of $202 million.
Florida
Plains Resources Inc., Houston, plans to sell most of its interests in oil fields previously acquired from Exxon Corp. in the South Florida basin Cretaceous Sunniland lime trend.
Its Calumet Florida Inc. unit operates Raccoon Point, Sunniland, Felda, and West Felda fields.
Plains said it identified attractive drilling opportunities in Raccoon Point field from a 1999 3D seismic survey. If it sells the properties, the company hopes to retain an interest in the drilling opportunities.
The fields averaged 2,600 b/d in 1999. The sale will enable Plains to focus on its California oil producing properties.
Tennessee
Kingsport enacted a city ordinance that granted a subsidiary of Tengasco Inc., Knoxville, 20-year franchise authority to serve residential, commercial, and industrial customers and construct pipelines in the city limits.
Tengasco plans to supply the gas from wells in Swan Creek oil and gas field, Hancock County (OGJ, Apr. 19, 1999, p. 95). It is extending a 12-in. pipeline, the state's only intrastate system, from the field to Eastman Chemical Co. at Kingsport. A 20-year contract calls for delivery of a minimum 10 MMcfd to Eastman, whose 6,100-acre facility is the state's largest manufacturer.
United Cities Gas Co., Franklin, Tenn., holds a nonexclusive franchise and ships gas to Kingsport from an interstate pipeline.
