Azerbaijan
Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov and Socar president Natik Aliyev signed an agreement on the main principles and conditions of rehabilitation, prospecting, and production sharing for the oil block that includes Zykh and Govsany fields onshore east of Baku.
A feasibility study prepared by Azerbaijani Research Institute Gipro- morneftegaz estimated residual oil reserves of as much as 20 million tons in the two fields on the southern Apsheron peninsula.
The firms would share the 128 sq km license, including 52 sq km of rehabilitation area, on a 50-50 basis.
The first stage includes an additional G&G survey and interpretation of newly acquired data. Then two exploration and appraisal wells are to be drilled and recoverable reserves volumes adjusted on the basis of drilling. Estimated capital spending would exceed $250 million.
Brazil
A group led by Santa Fe Snyder Corp., Houston, placed on production a well in one of six discovered fields off Ceara in the Potiguar basin.
CES-124, a re-entered Petrobras well, yielded about 1,000 b/d of 23° gravity oil from perforations in Cretaceous Acu at about 1,000 m. The well produces through a mobile offshore production unit into a floating storage and offloading tanker.
Santa Fe plans to re-enter two other wells and drill two more this year as a pilot program to conduct tests for about 1 year for design of a development plan. After full development, gross production would reach more than 30,000 b/d by 2004.
The company has said production might reach around 2,000 b/d by yearend 2000. It puts gross reserves on the block at 50-150 million bbl. Petrobras formerly drilled 11 wells on the block, 10 of which were successful.
The entire block is covered by 3D seismic data, and the productive structures range from 500-1,500 acres each. Block interests are Santa Fe 51.4%, Repsol YPF 26.2%, Petrobras 20%, and Sotep 2.4%.
Cameroon
SNH was evaluating bids for Kribi-Campo deepwater acreage by three companies in the licensing round that closed June 30.
The bidders were Grynberg Petroleum Co., Denver, Fusion Oil & Gas NL, Twickenham, UK, and a combine of Atlas Petroleum International Ltd., Lagos, and Pegasus Energy Ventures Ltd., London.
Since World Bank approval of a loan for the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project on June 6, numerous companies and groups have planned to negotiate with the Cameroonian Party for licenses in the Logone Birni basin in northeastern Cameroon, said Exploration Consultants Ltd., Henley, UK., consultant to the government.
Israel
Spectrum Energy & Information Technology Ltd., Woking, UK, is acquiring and reprocessing seismic data into a package that covers more than 14,000 km tying offshore Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt.
The package includes 6,500 km of 2D nonexclusive seismic data in the eastern Mediterranean Sea being acquired during July 11-Aug. 31, 2000.
Spectrum has reprocessed 7,850 km of complementary regional data. Numerous structural and stratigraphic play types of various ages have been identified from Mesozoic through Pliocene, and many of the same features that have yielded gas discoveries off Israel can be seen across other parts of the area, the company said.
Kazakhstan
Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Co. (OKIOC) partners shared the first official details of their Kashagan East 1 wildcat, spudded last fall in the North Caspian Sea.
The well went to 16,400 ft in 10 ft of water. It encountered an oil-bearing interval in Paleozoic carbonates below 13,000 ft, OKIOC said. The lower zone, the first of two tests planned, flowed at rates as high as 3,700 b/d of 42-44° oil and 7 MMcfd of gas on a 32/64-in. choke.
Press reports attributed 8-50 billion bbl of oil in place to the well, but OKIOC only expressed encouragement and the hope that further drilling will support the initial results.
The nine OKIOC shareholders are subsidiaries of ENI SPA, BG PLC, BP Amoco PLC, ExxonMobil, Inpex, Phillips Petroleum Co., Royal/Dutch Shell Group, Statoil AS, and TotalFinaElf SA.
Alberta
Canadian 88 Energy Corp. and Hunt Oil Co. of Canada Inc. plan to place on production within 12 months the 50-50 owned Caroline B Swan Hills oil pool.
The companies just completed the 7th well in the pool, estimated to be 12 miles long and 1 mile wide. The area is 8 miles south of Caroline, Alta., and just west of Shell Canada Ltd.'s Caroline A gas pool.
The 7th well, drilled to 13,065 ft in late 1999, cut 27 m of Swan Hills formation. It is expected to go on line at rates significantly higher than the maximum but restricted 16 MMcfd of raw gas it tested into a pipeline at 1,750 psi back pressure during May-July 2000. Gas analyzed at 50% hydrogen sulfide and contained ethane plus liquids amounting to 70 bbl/MMscf of raw gas.
Yukon Territory
The government will soon issue a call for nominations of tracts to be included in a second oil and gas licensing round.
The government will list available tracts and likely set a deadline for bids in early 2001.
Michigan
Range Petroleum Corp., Calgary, and Markwest Hydrocarbons Inc., Denver, signed a non-binding arrangement that allows Range to participate in the drilling of up to seven Silurian pinnacle reefs in northern Michigan.
The first of the tests, near Markwest's gas pipeline, was on the Crystal Lake prospect. Drilled in late June, it missed the pinnacle reef, likely due to difficulty in seismic imaging resulting from salt dissolution complications, Range said. The companies plan to whipstock and redrill that prospect and also plan to drill the West Shelby prospect in early August.
Oklahoma
GHK Co. LLC, Oklahoma City, has placed on line eight wells producing gas from Mississippian Jackfork in the Potato Hills field area in the northern Ouachita Province.
The eight wells averaged a combined 69 MMcfd of gas during January 2000 from Jackfork at 4,600-6,765 ft, IHS Energy Group reported. IHS said state figures show that the wells have produced a combined 20 bcf since the first two wells went on line late in 1998.
Since early 2000, GHK has completed 5 more wells in the field 20 miles south of Wilburton, all producing from near the shallower end of the above depth range.
A majority of the early completions were in southern Latimer County, and the data indicate that at least five of the wells on line or capable of production are in northern Pushmataha County (OGJ, Aug. 18, 1997, p. 67). At least one of the wells is the state's first horizontal well to produce from Jackfork.
GHK is to spud a wildcat to 21,000 ft in 7-2n-20e, Pushmataha County, on the southwest side of the field in September and has a permit to deepen to 18,000 ft and test zones as old as Ordovician at a 15,512-ft dry hole that American Quasar Petroleum Co. drilled in 1978.
Texas
Yates is to evaluate the zone at 9,200 ft at the former dry hole drilled by Enron Oil & Gas Co. in 1989, IHS reported.
The site is 15 miles southwest of Carlsbad Caverns, NM, and 60 miles east-southeast of Yates' shut-in discovery that opened Hackberry field, the first apparently commercial accumulation in the Orogrande basin (OGJ, Aug. 17, 1998, p. 45). That well, just north of the Texas line, had a CAOF potential of 3.6 MMcfd of gas from upper Mississippian Helms at about 4,500 ft and after treatment sustained 4.4 MMcfd on an extended production test.
Wyoming
Anschutz Exploration Corp., Denver, staked two wildcats to Pennsylvanian Minnelusa in eastern Wyoming near the South Dakota line.
The wildcats, projected to about 4,000 ft, are in eastern Niobrara County on the Black Hills uplift, IHS reported. The sites are about 3 miles west of abandoned East Simms Draw field, which produced oil from Leo (Minnelusa) in Fall River County, SD.
