Argentina
Americas Petrogas Inc., Calgary, has begun to production test the operated LTE.x-1 well on the Los Toldos II block in Argentina's Neuquen basin after performing a five-stage hydraulic frac of the Vaca Muerta shale.
The well was drilled and cased to 10,695 ft total depth and intersected a continuous 1,125 ft of shale. Americas Petrogas and ExxonMobil Corp. each have 45% interest in the block, and Gas y Petroleo del Neuquen has 10%.
Colombia
Colombia's Cepcolsa has spudded the La Casona-1 wildcat on the El Eden block in the Llanos basin of Colombia.
The well targets the Mirador, Une, and Gacheta formations that produce in nearby fields.
Parex Resources Colombia Ltd. will pay the first 65% of the dry hole cost and has applied to become block operator. Petroamerica Oil Corp., Calgary, has a 40% participating interest in the La Casona-1 well, of which 15% is still pending ANH approval.
Indonesia
Dart Energy International Pte. Ltd., Singapore, plans to start work in mid to late 2013 on the 411 sq km Bontang Bengalon coalbed methane block in the central Kutei basin in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.
The exploratory work program in the first 3-year period consists of three core wells and one pilot well. A 30-year production sharing contract is expected to be signed within 1-2 months. Dart will operate Bontang Bengalon with a 100% working interest.
The southern part of the two-part block is adjacent to the Bontang LNG facility, and the northern part is 62 km north of that facility and adjacent to the Sangatta West PSC in which Dart is a net 24% participant and joint operator.
Dart considers Bontang Bengalon as highly prospective given the significant exploratory and pilot appraisal work undertaken on the neighboring Sangatta West block, where CBM reserves and commercial viability have already been established. Dart said the local market has substantial need for gas, including the Bontang LNG facility.
Kazakhstan
Tethys Petroleum Ltd. has spudded an exploratory well in the North Ustyurt basin of Kazakhstan southeast of the company's Doris oil and gas field.
The AKD07 well targets a potential downdip field extension at the Cretaceous Aptian sand level in what is believed to be a channel sand system, the Doris sand.
It also will probe an exploratory prospect named Dyna that has been identified on 3D seismic from a bright amplitude anomaly at a slightly shallower level and is interpreted to be part of a separate, larger sand fan or sheet sand system. The gross mean unrisked recoverable prospective resource attributed to the Dyna prospect is 128 million bbl. The well also has a deeper Jurassic level target as interpreted from 3D seismic.
Expected drilling time to 2,540 m is 55 days.
Namibia
Hydrocarb Energy Corp., private Houston concern, has taken a farmout from Duma Energy Corp., Houston, to earn a 39% working interest in a group of exploratory blocks in northern Namibia.
The farmout covers Owambo blocks 1714A, 1715, 1814A, and 1815A north Etosha National Park. Blocks 1714A and 1715 lie along the border with Angola. The four blocks total 5.3 million acres.
Hydrocarb, with 51% interest, remains operator, and Namibia's NAMCOR has 10%.
Thailand
Coastal Energy Co., Houston, said it will shortly tie in production from the A-10 well in Songkhla A field in the Gulf of Thailand.
Songkhla A-10 went to 7,400 ft true vertical depth and encountered 213 ft of net pay with 20% porosity, "some of the best reservoir characteristics we've seen in the Lower Oligocene interval," the company said. The gross oil column is 550 ft thick.
The well has a record amount of net pay for the Songkhla basin and doubled the volumetric estimates for the field's easternmost fault block, in which the previously drilled A-12ST-1 well originally tested at 3,500 b/d of oil with 105 ft of pay.
The next well will test the fault block immediately north and if successful could warrant an additional production facility to develop these two fault blocks, the firm said.
