Uchenna Izundu
International Editor
LONDON, Jan. 23 -- Oilex Ltd., Perth, said it will focus on bringing its Cambay oil and gas field on stream in the second half of this year.
The field, in Gujarat state, India, holds an estimated 48 million bbl of oil and 356 bcf of gas from two known reservoirs, the Oligocene and the Eocene.
Oilex will drill 6 wells over the next 9 months on Cambay to prove the reserves in those reservoirs and will seek more oil and gas in deeper reservoir horizons to provide potential exploration upside. The first well will be spudded within the next 3-6 weeks.
Oilex Managing Director Bruce McCarthy described Cambay as a low-cost, low-risk production project that would provide early cash flow to finance drilling programs in India, Oman, and Indonesia.
Oil production of more than 1,000 b/d from the Pendalian-3 well on the onshore West Kampar production-sharing contract in Sumatra is scheduled to start from 3-5 development wells in the second quarter. Oilex also will shoot 3D seismic surveys covering 50 sq km over Pendalian to identify other drilling areas for the third quarter. It also will shoot 2D seismic on the prospective Daludalu exploration trend in the northern part of the block.
Oilex's Sarha-1 exploration well has discovered oil within two main objective horizons on Block 56 onshore Oman. This is the first of three exploration wells on the PSC. These will be followed by four wells in the third quarter and an additional four wells in the fourth quarter.
Sarha-1 has a best estimate of 20 million bbl of oil in the shallower, Permian objective, plus considerable additional exploration upside in the Cambrian Huqf formation. Oilex said the second and third wells, Ghadaq-1 and Alyanbhou-1, have a best-estimate reserve of 14 million bbl of oil and 135 million bbl respectively, suggesting the potential for a large scale discovery.
The company will continue to evaluate its interests in Australia and in the joint petroleum development area between Australia and Timor-Leste. Overall, Oilex will invest $52 million (Aus.) on exploration and development wells in India, Indonesia, and Oman in 2008.
Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].
