Argentina
Drilling is to start by Mar. 22 on a 10-12-well drilling program in the El Valle area of Argentina's Neuquen basin, said Crown Point Ventures Ltd., Calgary.
Excessive rain delayed the program's start, but a rig is under contract and the first 6-7 wells will be multizone oil development in the Canadon Seco and Caleta Olivia formations. CPVL plans to drill 24 wells at El Valle in the next 2 years.
CPVL also is undertaking 2-4 workovers at El Valle to access behind-pipe pay zones. This work is also to start in late March.
The firm awarded a contract to electrify the lower part of El Valle field. The project is to be complete in 4-6 months. Electrification will enable installation of high-volume progressive cavity pumps, more consistent production rates, better well monitoring, and reduced costs.
Egypt
BP Exploration (Delta) Ltd. has started oil production from NS377 field on the North Shadwan concession in Egypt's southern Gulf of Suez.
Initial production via pipeline will be restricted to 1,000 b/d. The oil will be treated at Petrobel's Ras Ghara treatment plant before being piped to the main Petreco Oil Centre and marine terminal 120 km north at Abu Rudeis. Further production from NS377 will be handled by truck starting in the second quarter.
In nearby NS385 field, planning is under way for drilling the first development well, expected to spud by the end of the second quarter. NS385 is to begin producing by the first quarter of 2013, bringing combined production from North Shadwan to as much as 5,000 b/d.
The North Shadwan joint venture partners have applied for a development lease for the NS394 oil discovery. Development is expected to begin in 2013, and production is to start in 2014 at as much as 7,000 b/d.
North Shadwan equity interests are BP Exploration operator with 50%, TriOcean Energy Co. 30%, and Beach Petroleum (Egypt) Pty. Ltd. 20%.
Indonesia
Spectrum ASA, Oslo, in partnership with CGGVeritas and GeoData Ventures, has begun a broadband 2D multiclient seismic survey offshore West Timor, Indonesia.
The largely prefunded program will cover 3,340 km over the Timor trough, with CGGVeritas providing acquisition and processing services.
The survey area is an underexplored region with complex geology. Final deliverables are expected to be available in November.
Kenya
Afren PLC started a 1,800 line-km 2D seismic survey on Block 1 in northeastern Kenya along the border with Somalia. The combine of Afren and Lion Petroleum Corp., private London explorer, will use the data to identify prospects for drilling in 2013. Real-time field processing and interpretation are in use.
The block, unexplored since 1990, covers 7.8 million acres in the Mandera Lugh basin, which extends into Ethiopia where it is called the Ogaden basin.
Lion Petroleum has a 50% working interest and is carried by Afren through the first 600 line-km of seismic expected to cost $6 million gross. Afren, which farmed into the license, is the operator.
In this year's first half, the partnership acquired airborne gravity and magnetic data to define the major basin geometry and plan the seismic.
Evidence is clear of a working petroleum system in the basin. The well-known Tarbaj oil seep is in the southwest part of Block 1.
In Ethiopia, close to the Block 1 border, the El Kuran-1 and 2 wells drilled by Tenneco in 1972 encountered oil, and Africa Oil Corp. plans to drill an offset exploratory well later this year. West of El Kuran, the Genale oil seep occurs on the basin flank. Farther north, the basin is gas productive from Hilal and Calub gas-condensate fields.
Netherlands
Wintershall AG's Noord Zee unit and the Netherlands unit of Sterling Resources Ltd., Calgary, have been awarded the E3 and F1 exploration licenses in the Dutch North Sea.
The licenses, which total 792 sq km, are awarded for 4 years with a commitment to shoot 600 sq km of 3D seismic.
Norway
RWE Dea Norge AS has taken a farmout from Wintershall Norge ASA to earn a 10% interest in Production License 418 in the North Sea offshore Norway.
Wintershall operates the license, where the first well, 35/9-7, is to test the Skarfjell prospect 14 km southwest of Gjoa field.
RWE Dea operates the adjacent PL420 license, where it made the promising Titan discovery in 2010. RWE Dea is also a partner in the producing Gjoa field.
In 2012, RWE Dea Norge has been awarded seven new licenses, two of them as operator.
Pakistan
OMV AG has completed the K-30 exploratory well on the Kadanwari block in the Middle Indus basin in Pakistan.
The well was spudded on Jan. 15 and has tested at 52 MMscfd of gas on a 60⁄64-in. choke, said Premier Oil PLC, which has a 15.79% interest in the block.
OMV will tie the well into the production facility by the end of the second quarter of 2012, delivering about 30 MMscfd of gas, Premier Oil said.
Papua New Guinea
Esso PNG Exploration Ltd. and Oil Search Ltd. will each acquire 50% of the working interest in PPL 277 in Papua New Guinea from New Guinea Energy Ltd., Sydney, contingent on receipt of the next extension of the license and other government approvals.
Consideration for the interests, held by New Guinea Energy's Kingsbury Ltd. subsidiary, is $7.5 million from each purchaser. New Guinea Energy may become entitled to a further $20 million if a petroleum development license is granted and, if commercial production occurs, a royalty on all revenue received from hydrocarbons produced and sold.
The company said it is difficult to assign a value to these additional rights as they depend on a number of factors and contingencies outside its control, such as discovery, size of discoveries, commercial viability of development, timing of production, LNG pricing at the time of production, and other economic and financing contingencies.
The first exploratory activity near PPL 277 will be Esso and Oil Search's drilling of the Trapia-1 well on the boundary of PRL 11 and PPL 277 in the first half of 2012. Trapia is a large structure in PRL 11 close to the PNG LNG infrastructure and east of Hides and Angore fields. The structure may extend into PPL 277.
Philippines
Forum Energy PLC is planning the execution of a second subphase work program that is expected to involve the drilling of one or two wells in undeveloped, deepwater Sampaguita gas-condensate field west of Palawan Island in the Philippines by June 2013.
Sampaguita is on Service Contract 72 on Recto Bank, formerly Reed Bank, about 100 miles southwest of Malampaya gas-condensate field (see maps, OGJ, Nov. 19, 2001, p. 46).
Forum Energy a consultant's final interpretation, including identification of optimal drilling locations, of 2D and 3D seismic data shot in 2011 is expected by midyear. The company has a 70% interest in the 8,800 sq km license, which also contains numerous leads.
Philex Petroleum Corp., listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange, controls 64.45% of Forum Energy shares and has enabled Forum Energy to fund its share of the first subphase work program. Forum Energy may also take partners in order to accelerate development.
Malampaya, discovered in 1992 with more than 4.3 tcf of reserves, started producing gas to power plants south of Manila in October 2001 through a 313-mile, 24-in. subsea pipeline.
Poland
Poland's Ministry of Environment has extended by 3 years the license on Block 208 at Poznan East in Poland for a geological work program of 150 line-km of 2D seismic, said Aurelian Oil & Gas PLC.
The Block 208 expiration of Feb. 12, 2015, is now in line with that of adjacent Block 207, site of Siekierki gas field and the recent Krzesinki-1 gas discovery.
Block 208 is prospective for Rotliegendes and Zechstein opportunities and also is adjacent to the Polish Oil & Gas Co.-operated "Fences" concessions. In 2011 Aurelian shot 200 line-km of 2D seismic on Block 208 that it is now interpreting.
Poznan East is 100% held by Energia Zachod Sp. z o.o., a company owned 90% by Aurelian and 10% by Avobone Poland BV.
FX Energy Inc., Salt Lake City, said its gas production in Poland has averaged 13.5 MMscfd so far in 2012, up from the 2011 average of 12 MMscfd.
Despite a $28.5 million net loss for calendar 2011, FX said its KSK wells and facilities in Poland have not yet reached their maximum sustainable production rates. A further production rate is expected in a few months, followed by another uptick when the Winna Gora well goes on line. The wells produce from tight Rotliegend sandstones in Poland's Permian basin.
The company received an average $6.19/Mcf for gas in Poland in 2011, up 15% from 2010, but a decrease in US dollar-dominated Polish gas prices in the fourth quarter partly offset the production increase.
Capital spending for 2012 is expected to increase substantially over the $32.5 million spent in 2011 and are to be funded by higher revenue and cash balances.
Saponis Investments Sp. z o.o. has spudded the Miszewo T-1 well on the Trzebielino concession between Gdansk and Koszalin in northern Poland.
After drilling Miszewo, expected to take 40 days, the rig is to move east to the Gapowo location on the Bytow concession. BNK Petroleum Inc., Camarillo, Calif., owns 26% of Saponis through its Indiana Investments Sp. z o.o. subsidiary.
An objective of the wells is to verify BNK's geological model, which indicates that the target shales on the Trzebielino and Bytow concessions were deposited in a deeper basin environment than encountered by the previously drilled wells. The deeper environment and transgressive nature of the deposit is expected to lead to richer and thicker organic shales than found in the Lebork S-1 well northeast of Miszewo.
Saponis, meanwhile, plans to recover long-term pressure test gauges placed in the Lebork well in October 2011 and perform injectivity and long-term leakoff tests to confirm injection rates and pressures prior to restimulating the well in April, subject to shareholder approval.
South Korea
Woodside Energy (Korea) Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Woodside Petroleum Ltd., will spud its first exploratory well, Jujak-1, offshore South Korea in the second quarter.
Woodside Energy and Korea National Oil Corp. acquired 50-50 interests in early 2007 in a contract that covers Block 8 and the northern part of Block 6-1 in the East Sea 30 km east of P'ohang. The contract area covers 13,000 sq km in 300-2,000 m of water.
The two companies had been studying the Ulleung basin just north of the country's only producing hydrocarbon area, Donghae-1 gas-condensate field.
Yemen
Total SA has acquired Oil Search Ltd.'s 40% interest in Block 3 (Gardan) in the eastern part of Yemen's Marib-Shabwah basin. The gas pipeline from Block 18 fields to the Yemen LNG liquefaction plant at Balhaf on the Gulf of Aden crosses the southern part of Block 3.
Total will be operator of the 2,954 sq km block, and its partners are OMV AG of Austria, MND Exploration & Production Ltd. of the Czech Republic, and Yemen General Corp. for Oil & Gas.
Total also operates East Shabwa Block 10 in the Masila basin with 28.57% interest and has a 15% nonoperated interest in Jannah Block 5 in the Marib-Jawf basin. Total operates Blocks 70 and 72 with 50.1% and 36% interests, respectively, and has a 40% nonoperated interest in Blocks 69 and 71.
Oil Search noted that its remaining asset in Yemen is its 34% operated interest in Block 7 (Al Barqa), which contains Al Meashar oil field, discovered in 2010. Oil Search plans a 2D seismic on prospective areas of Block 7, which will be shot this year subject to the political and security situation.
Alberta
Canadian Quantum Energy Corp., Calgary, has received all regulatory approvals and built location for the Sundance Alexander 16-11-56-27w4m well on the company's Alexander First Nation permit northwest of Edmonton, Alta.
The well, planned to spud Mar. 3, is projected to 1,300 m to test for light oil in the Ellerslie, Detrital, and Wabamun formations. The company has also permitted a 3D seismic program to be shot over 9 sq km of Alexander First Nation lands. Acquisition and processing are to be complete by the third week of March.
Canadian Quantum has 8,640 net acres on Alexander First Nation lands. It also has 360 net acres at Turin in southern Alberta and interests in 174,000 gross acres on four permits in the Quebec St. Lawrence Lowlands Utica shale play.
New Brunswick
Contact Exploration Inc., Calgary, submitted to the New Brunswick government an environmental impact assessment for Stoney Creek oil and gas field in New Brunswick.
The assessment contemplates the drilling of more development wells in early summer. Contact expressed encouragement at the results of its 2010 horizontal drilling program at Stoney Creek and is working to secure equipment for the summer program pending regulatory approval to proceed.
Meanwhile, the government has granted extensions on all prospective oil and gas lands held in New Brunswick. Lands Contact considers prospective for oil near the B-55 Hopewell well were extended until 2014, and lands prospective for natural gas were secured until 2017.
Newfoundland
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board has issued a call for bids on six parcels totaling nearly 1.6 million ha in Area C of the Laurentian subbasin in the Atlantic 210 miles southwest of St. John's.
Deadline is Nov. 1 to submit sealed bids. The sole criterion for selecting winning bids will be the total amount of money the bidder commits to spend exploring the respective parcel during Period I, including the spudding of a well, to validate the license for the full 9-year term. Minimum bid is $1 million/parcel.
Three of the parcels are adjacent to the French Exclusive Zone around St. Pierre and Miquelon islands. A 2005 agreement ratified by France but not yet by Canada could result in the application of further terms and conditions for those parcels.
Two parcels adjacent to three of the six blocks are under license to ConocoPhillips Canada Resources Corp., which shot 3D seismic (OGJ Online, Feb. 24, 2006).
Louisiana
Southwestern Energy Co., Houston, is drilling its third well in the Jurassic Lower Smackover Brown dense play in southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana, in which it has acquired 520,619 net acres.
The BML 31-22 1-1H well is in Union Parish, La., was spudded in February, the same month in which the company completed its first well in the play, the Roberson 18-19 1-15H, in Columbia County, Ark.
The Robertson well has a 3,600-ft lateral in the lower third of the target formation, and total depth is 9,369 ft measured depth. Core analysis indicated this section had some of the lowest permeability in the entire interval.
Southwestern said the well has been producing from eight of 11 fractured stimulated stages for 20 days of an expected 20 to 30-day clean-up period. Oil production began on the eighth day, and the company expressed encouragement with the highest 24-hr rates to date of 103 b/d of oil, 200 Mcfd of gas, and 1,009 b/d of water with 45% of load recovered.
The company's second well, the Garrett 7-23-5H 1 in Claiborne Parish, La., was drilled to a vertical depth in February at 10,863 ft with a 6,536-ft horizontal lateral steered into the top of the interval. It drilled faster and had better oil shows than the first well.
Ohio
Rex Energy Corp., State College, Pa., plans to spud the first two of its four planned 2012 wells in the Utica shale wet gas area in Ohio in April.
The locations are on the company's Warrior prospect in northern Carroll County, southwest and northwest of two wells completed by Chesapeake Energy Corp.
Rex Energy said it has closed on 13,700 net acres of the previously announced 15,000 net acres with Utica shale potential and expects to close on the rest by the end of March.
Meanwhile, the company has completed a pipeline to Cheeseman 1H, its first Utica shale well in Butler County, Pa., and expects to turn the well to sales by Mar. 1.
The well previously tested at the rate of 9.2 MMcfd of dry gas.
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