Bahrain
Texaco UK plans to begin drilling in 2002 in the Eastern Offshore Area in the Persian Gulf on Block V awarded by the Ministry of Oil.
Bahrain produces 40,000 b/d from its own fields and receives 140,000 b/d from Abu Safa offshore field shared with Saudi Arabia.
China
The government amended its oil and gas legislation Oct. 7 to allow China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) to invite foreign exploration and production companies to bid for onshore oil and gas blocks.
Only China National Petroleum Corp. had that right under the previous law.
The new regulation allows only CNPC and Sinopec to buy equity oil from foreign companies operating under production-sharing contracts in China.
In another new regulation issued on the same date, the government confirmed China National Offshore Oil Corp.'s exclusive responsibility for exploring offshore petroleum resources in China in cooperation with foreign enterprises.
The government also named China United Coal-Bed Methane Co. Ltd. as the exclusive entity to engage with foreign companies in cooperative exploration and production of coalbed methane.
Egypt
Ocean Energy Inc., Houston, said a well on its East Zeit concession in the Gulf of Suez may add 40-80 million bbl of reserves to the 87 million bbl already produced from the field.
East Zeit A-21 reached 16,300 ft TD and found 745 ft of oil pay.
Ocean Energy, which owns 100% working interest, plans to bring the well on stream before month's end. It plans delineation and further development of East Zeit field next year.
Ocean Energy holds working interests in five concessions in Egypt, three onshore. The company drilled Egypt's longest-reach horizontal well on its East Zeit properties in 1998.
India
Essar Group, Mumbai, plans to invest $31 million in exploration and development in Rajasthan Province, northwestern India. It will drill 15-20 wells there in the next 2 years.
Essar planned a second exploratory well near Raisinghnagar in the Sriganganagar district after its first, Nanuwala-1 in the Bikaner-Nagaur basin in northwestern Rajasthan, flowed good quality, 35
Nanuwala proved the presence of hydrocarbons in an unexplored area of Rajasthan. Essar, Oil India Ltd., and Polish Oil & Gas Co. have held two blocks in Rajasthan since 1996.
Shell India and Cairn Energy PLC gauged 2,000 b/d of oil at the Guda-2 discovery in Rajasthan in mid-1999.
Texas South
An agreement signed in mid-October to supply gas to a distribution company in northern Mexico could spur drilling in South Texas.
Reef Marketing LLC, a unit of Tidelands Oil & Gas Corp., Corpus Christi, Tex., signed a 10-year pact to sell gas to Cia. Nacional de Gas SA de CV (Conagas), a distribution company that serves Piedras Negras, Coahuila, just south of Eagle Pass, Tex.
Gas volume and price were not disclosed, but energy demand in the Piedras Negras region is growing 24%/year, officials said. Tidelands and third parties will provide the gas.
The agreement calls for Tidelands to process gas at its Rio Bravo Processing Plant and transport it via its Sonora Pipeline network to the proposed Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras International Pipeline Crossing. The gas will be moved through a 12-in. line to be built underneath the Rio Grande River (OGJ Online, Oct. 9, 2001). Delivery was to start in early 2002.
