By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 12 -- Independents plan to explore several blocks in the Kom Ombo basin along the Nile in Upper Egypt.
Groundstar Resources Ltd., Calgary, signed a preliminary farmout agreement with Pan Pacific Petroleum Egypt Pty. Ltd., Sydney, involving West Kom Ombo Block 3.
Groundstar will pay 75% of the cost of the first 2 exploration phases to acquire a 42.5% working interest in 42,291 sq km Block 3. Commitments net to Groundstar are $2.25 million and $3 million, respectively. The second period requires the drilling of 2 wells.
Centurion Energy International Inc., Calgary, which operates Block 2 just east of Block 3, acquired 516 km of 2D seismic data in March and has identified 11 prospects and leads. Centurion plans to drill one or more wells by early 2007. A well drilled by former Block 2 operator Repsol YPF SA tested 39° gravity oil, establishing the presence of an active petroleum system in the area.
TransGlobe Energy Corp. and Arsenal Energy Inc., which control Nuqra, the next block east, completed acquiring 800 km of 2D seismic in April (OGJ Online, June 23, 2005). They identified up to eight prospects and leads and plan 2 exploration wells in late 2006 on the 7.5 million acre tract.
The three blocks take in the entire Kom Ombo-Kharit basin, which Groundstar said has strong similarities to oil-producing Sudan rift basins.
RWE Dea AG of Germany holds the block just north of Block 3, and its work program is unknown. Exploration studies on Block 3 including an 835-km 2D seismic grid and an aeromagnetic survey show that the basinal trends Centurion and TransGlobe are pursuing continue northwest onto Block 3 and possibly farther north onto the RWE Dea block, Groundstar said. Aeromagnetic data support a second basinal trend on Block 3 to the southwest, it said.
