Area Drilling

Oct. 25, 2004
The government awarded five promote licenses in the UK North Sea to Veritas Geophysical Ltd., London.

UK

The government awarded five promote licenses in the UK North Sea to Veritas Geophysical Ltd., London.

The blocks are 21/3c, 22/22c, 23/26c, 29/4e, and 29/4c and 5c. The company will evaluate the blocks using its own new seismic data sets and present drill-ready prospects to industry.

The award brought the company's holding off the UK to 12 licenses.

Adams Resources & Energy Inc., Houston, said its UK subsidiary was awarded a 331/3% interest in a promote production license covering more than 20,000 acres on the northeastern part of Block 48/16a in the southern North Sea near Pickerill field.

Adams and its partners will obtain 2D and 3D seismic data and submit a development plan within 2 years. Adams expects the work program to confirm the existence of an exploration prospect that will be promoted to investors before drilling.

The acreage is in 80 ft of water 40 miles east of Theddlethorpe.

Venezuela

Petroleos de Venezuela SA let a contract for acquisition of a 3D seismic survey in Guarico and Anzoategui states. The contract calls for Grant Geophysical Inc., Houston, to acquire 730 sq km of 3D data in Roblote 3D Phase I. Crews will gather the data in the rest of 2004 and well into 2005.

Arizona

Holbrook Energy LLC, Scottsdale, Ariz., staked a 2,100-ft wildcat to Permian Supai on the Concho Dome in the Holbrook basin.

Location for the NZ Oil & Gas 17-1 is in 17-14n-25e, Apache County, 25 miles northwest of St. John's.

This site is between a potash well that encountered live oil in four Supai zones in 18-14n-25e and a well in 15-14n-25e on the dome's crest that blew out and flowed methane.

Data from several wells drilled for potash indicate that the Concho Dome has an oil column at least 130 ft thick with an overlying gas cap. The Supai outcrop along the Mogollon Rim is impregnated with oil for 135 miles (see map, OGJ, Oct. 20, 1997, p. 84).

Concho Dome, one of the main anticlines in the Holbrook basin, covers 16,250 acres (OGJ, Jan. 5, 1981, p. 123). The nearest oil and gas production to Holbrook Energy's location is in Boundary Butte field along the Arizona-Utah state line.

Montana

The US Bureau of Land Management indefinitely halted work on an environmental impact statement covering the Blackleaf area of the Rocky Mountain Front in northwestern Montana, said assistant Interior secretary Rebecca Watson.

Preparation of the EIS began after StarTech Energy Inc., Calgary, proposed to drill a wildcat to 6,500 ft in 6-25n-8w, Teton County, about 75 miles northwest of Great Falls.

BLM said, "The announcement means the area will not be developed in the foreseeable future."

Halting work on the EIS "would allow more time for all involved parties to explore alternatives that would resolve the complex issues associated with energy development in the Blackleaf area," the BLM said.

The agency said stopping the Blackleaf EIS would allow it to concentrate instead on the West HiLine EIS/resource management plan, which involves 850 authorized oil and gas leases to the east in Chouteau County.

Operators have expressed frustration with permitting delays and the cost of doing business in Rocky Mountains basins (OGJ Online, Sept. 28, 2004).

Oklahoma

PetroQuest Energy Inc., Lafayette, La., was adding a second rig and planned to drill 50 horizontal wells to Pennsylvanian Hartshorne coals in the Arkoma basin by the end of 2005.

The company drilled and completed 10 wells since May 2004 in the area, where it reported an acquisition in mid-October.

PetroQuest paid an undisclosed private company $13.5 million for its interest in properties holding an estimated 8.8 bcf of proved gas reserves, 47% of which are proved developed producing. The acquisition adds 1.5 MMcfd to the company's production.

The acquisition brings PetroQuest's holding centered on Pittsburg County to more than 12,000 net acres and 36 miles of pipeline.