Brunei exploratory drilling on tap in 2010

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 14 -- Two groups plan to drill at least four exploration wells onshore Brunei in 2010.

Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc., Calgary, formerly Loon Energy Inc., offered to buy private Sydney firm Triton Hydrocarbons Pty. Ltd., which has a 36% interest in 744,000-acre Block M that contains undeveloped Belait oil and gas field.

Shareholders of more than 75% of Triton stock accepted the offer. Closing is expected in mid-September.

Tap Oil Ltd., Perth, operates Block M, which is just south of 550,000-acre Block L, in which Kulczyk Oil holds 40% interest (OGJ Online, Sept. 1, 2009).

Tap Oil shot 118 sq km of 3D seismic and 60 line-km of 2D seismic on Block M in the second and third quarters of 2009. It plans to drill two wells in 2010 and a third well by August 2011. Kulczyk Oil noted that four prospects on Block M were categorized as prospective resources because of the lack of discovery wells and production tests.

Once Kulczyk Oil acquires Triton, Brunei National Petroleum Co. Sdn. Bhd. has the right to acquire Kulczyk Oil’s interest in Block M.

Nations Southeast Asia Ltd., Calgary, operator of Block L, shot 350 sq km of 3D seismic in the southwest part of the block earlier this year near adjacent Seria oil field, which had produced more than 1 billion bbl of oil by 1991.

Nations plans to drill two exploration wells starting in the first quarter of 2010 on Block L, where the last well, Jerudong-11, was drilled in 1986, Kulczyk Oil said.

Brunei Shell Petroleum Co. announced a large dry, sweet gas discovery in three formations just offshore at Bubut, less than 1 km from the Block L boundary (OGJ Online, Nov. 15, 2007).

Kulczyk Oil noted that Triton also owns 35% of Mauritania International Petroleum Inc., which holds 100% interest in four contiguous exploration blocks off Mauritania.

Triton also owns 50% of Triton Petroleum Pte. Ltd., or Triton Singapore, which owns a 20% beneficial interest in a production-sharing agreement that covers Syria’s Block 9, where Kulczyk Oil plans to shoot a large 3D seismic survey by June 2010. Triton Singapore will be led by the current management of Triton, who are pursuing development opportunities in southern Iraq.