Indonesia
Approvals for development of 460 bcf Ujung Pangkah rich gas field in the eastern Java Sea are expected in the third quarter of 2003, said 12% interest owner Dana Petroleum PLC, Aberdeen, UK.
Around the end of 2003, the group led by operator Amerada Hess Corp. will further appraise a west extension of Ujung Pangkah apparent on transition-zone seismic data and nearby Sidayu oil field, possibly doubling gas reserves and establishing a new oil development. Considerable oil also underlies Ujung Pangkah.
The gas development plan calls for three minimum facility offshore wellhead platforms and a 16-in. pipeline to an onshore gas processing facility. Gas is to flow in 2005. The field was discovered in 1998 (OGJ, Mar. 12, 2001, p. 39).
The companies also expect to drill the West Sidayu oil prospect around year-end 2003.
Mauritania
Dana Petroleum PLC, Aberdeen, UK, plans to spud a wildcat by yearend on the deepwater Pelican prospect on southern Block 7 off northern Mauritania.
The well's target could hold an estimated several hundred million barrels of oil in place. Dana, with an 80% interest in the block, identified several significant prospects on the block, many of which indicated stacked reservoir horizons.
Mozambique
Det Norske Oljeselskap AS, Oslo, acquired 80% interest and became operator of the Inhaminga exploration license onshore near Beira.
Within 18 months, one exploratory well is to be drilled to the base of the Upper Cretaceous Grudja formation, according to the contract signed with the Ministry of Mineral Resources & Energy.
Grudja sands are capable of gas production 200 km south of Inhaminga in Pande and Temane fields, under development by Sasol Ltd. of South Africa (OGJ, July 2, 2001, p. 70).
Wilrusco, Plano, Tex., holds the other 20% of the Inhaminga Block (OGJ, Nov. 13, 2000, p. 40).
Papua New Guinea
InterOil Corp., Houston, said the Moose-1ST well indicated more than 14 oil shows in 135 m of continuous core at 673-808 m, but commercial significance could not be determined.
The shows are both in fractures and from porous sections within the limestone, the company said. The limestone is in two sections, believed to be Miocene at 673-756 m and Eocene at 758-808 m, separated by a mudstone at 756-758 m. Initial tests indicate a light crude of marine origin.
Sidetrack drilling continued to determine the presence or absence of the primary objectives, the Pale and Subu sandstones.
Further tests of the limestone were under consideration. The cores demonstrate reservoir, seal, structure/trap, and oil at Moose, and the demonstration of oil generation, migration, and preservation upgrades nearby leads and prospects in the multiwell drilling program, the company said.
"The presence of live oil is the evidence that we needed to confirm our view that the Eocene is a prospective oil zone in Papua New Guinea, and demonstrates the Puri-1 oil flow was not an isolated anomaly," said Andy Carroll, InterOil's general manager of exploration and production (OGJ, Mar. 11, 2002, p. 38).
Ukraine
Indusmin Energy Corp., West Vancouver, BC, will spud the first of five wells in Malinovesky oil field in the Ivano-Frankivsk region in late August 2003 under a 5-year license issued in January 2002.
The field is in the southeastern Boryslavsko-Pokutska zone of the Precarpathian trough in the Nadvirna oil and gas commercial zone, western Ukraine, and is surrounded by developed infrastructure. The field is 16 km from the Nadvirna refinery, to which produced oil will be shipped by pipeline, said Carlos Munoz, president.
UK
Roc Oil (UK) Ltd., Sydney, won the 828 sq km onshore PEDL 127 exploration license 25 km west of and updip from giant Hewett offshore gas field in the North Sea.
A 3-year work program calls for the purchase of existing seismic and gravity data and the acquisition of at least 20 km of new 2D seismic data. Roc Oil, which believes the permit could contain gas trapped structurally or stratigraphically at relatively shallow depth, will likely retain 30-60% interest in the permit.
Meanwhile, Roc Oil said Saltfleetby, the UK's largest onshore gas field, has produced 45 bcf since start-up in 1999 and is flowing 27 MMcfd, mainly from a Middle Carboniferous (Westphalian) age reservoir.
A horizontal well the company is drilling to the Namurian and Westphalian gas reservoirs will also marginally appraise the Brinsley Abdy oil reservoir, encountered in a previous well, 220 m above Westphalian. TD is projected at 3,172 m.
Mississippi
Denbury Resources Inc., Dallas, completed in early August a 1-week shutdown of its Jackson Dome carbon dioxide treatment plant in Rankin County to expand capacity to 300 MMcfd from 200 MMcfd.
Each of three CO2 wells drilled and completed in the year ended July 2003 that supply the facility is capable of producing nearly double the forecast flow rate, boosting total supply capacity to the plant to 220 MMcfd. This is almost double year-earlier flow capacity.
About 4,500 boed of Denbury's 35,000 boed of second quarter production came from CO2 enhanced oil recovery projects, which are being expanded. EOR oil production should resume growth in the fourth quarter after being flat in the third quarter due to the CO2 supply interruption to the fields.
The company is working to reduce debt 10% to $300 million by yearend 2003.
New York
Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary, said its Fortuna Energy Inc. unit will soon test two wells on its extensive leasehold in the Appalachian basin in the Finger Lakes region (see map, OGJ, May 12, 2003, p. 38).
Fortuna Ganung Hz No. 1 reached TD, and cleanup is under way. The second, known as the K well, was near TD. Talisman provided no further details.
Fortuna is operating two rigs in the area and plans seven to nine wells in the rest of 2003.
The company said its Appalachian production averaged 67 MMcfd in the second quarter, up 12% from the first quarter. The company's realized gas price averaged $8.66/Mcf in the second quarter.
