Yemen's Block 9 gets commerciality declaration

June 23, 2005
Calvalley Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, declared its Block 9 in Yemen commercial after four discoveries and also reported its best well yet on the block.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 23 -- Calvalley Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, declared its Block 9 in Yemen commercial after four discoveries and also reported its best well yet on the block.

The company gave no indication of the timing or flow rate of first oil. It awaited approval of the declaration by the Ministry of Oil & Minerals. It has drilled 11 exploration and appraisal wells on the 876,402-acre block in the Sayun-Masila basin 115 km west of Nexen Inc.'s Masila oil and gas fields.

Declared commercial are the Hiswah, Al Roidhat, Auqban, and Qarn Qaymah oil discoveries. The development plan calls for drilling several horizontal and vertical wells and installing field gathering systems, early production facilities, and truck loading facilities to initially truck the oil to an existing transmission pipeline.

Calvalley proposes early development of Hiswah and to fast-track full development of all four fields. The oil is in several formations of Cretaceous and Jurassic age.

Meanwhile, the company said the Hiswah-6 horizontal appraisal well is the field's most productive yet. It flowed at a stable 3,700 b/d of light, 35° gravity oil from a 291-m lateral in the Cretaceous Saar reservoir.

Calvalley, operator with 50% interest, and partners Hoodoil Ltd. of Yemen and Reliance Industries Inc. of Yemen, each with 25%, are running a 64-sq-km 3D seismic survey over Hiswah and 200 line-km of 2D seismic over high-impact exploration prospects.