Peru
The Huaya-1X well operated by Cia. Consultora de Petroleos, Lima, on Block 100 in the Ucayali basin cut 14 ft of net pay in Cretaceous Vivian sandstone at 807-814 ft. TD is 926 ft.
The Vivian primary target has bright yellow oil, a gas show, and log porosity of 28-33%. The well, 22 miles northwest of Maquia oil field, is near PetroPeru’s 1984 Huaya-4X discovery, which tested 5 b/d of 38° gravity oil from Vivian. Other potential pay zones on the Huaya anticline are the shallower Cretaceous Cachiyacu and Casa Blanca formations.
Next to spud is Huaya-2X. The wells are near the Ucayali River. Working interests in the 17,300-acre block are CCP 70%, Houston-based Radial Energy Inc. 20%, and Ziegler-Peru Inc., Houston, 10%.
New Brunswick
An undisclosed US company took a farmout from Contact Exploration Inc., Calgary, that covers a shale gas prospect in New Brunswick.
The farmee will make further laboratory measurements on cores and cuttings from previously drilled conventional wells in the 68,000-acre prospect area. The farmee must commit to acquire more seismic surveys, drill a well, or terminate the agreement by Dec. 31, 2007.
The farmee is required to spud a well by Dec. 31, 2008, to earn a 70% working interest in the block. The farmout excludes all conventional plays that Contact is exploiting and excludes any interest in Stoney Creek oil and gas field.
Russia
Matra Petroleum PLC, Chertsey, UK, plans to acquire OOO Arkhangelovskoe, registered in Orenburg Oblast, and owns 100% of the Arkhangelovskoe exploration license near existing production.
Matra will issue 55 million new shares in payment for the Russian company and plans to spud Matra’s first well on the 158 sq km license near Orenburg in June 2007.
The license is valid until August 2009 and has a requirement to drill four wells. Matra will drill the first well to 3,900 m to test the Sokolovskaya structure.
Matra, subject to shareholder approval, will issue 135 million new shares and 24 million options to Delek International Energy Ltd. of Israel to raise $12 million for drilling.
Alabama
Daybreak Oil & Gas Inc., Spokane, Wash., applied to become operator of East Gilbertown oil field in Choctaw County, Ala.
Under a Dec. 13, 2006, agreement with Gilbertown LLC, Daybreak has earned a 12.5% interest in unspecified assets by spending $250,000 reworking and repairing existing wells.
The field has 21 existing wellbores that can be reentered in Cretaceous Eutaw sand and Selma chalk at 3,000-3,500 ft, and infill and development drilling opportunities are also available, Daybreak said.
Consulting engineers estimated that 8 million bbl of oil may be recovered from seven Eutaw sands in the field.
Louisiana
Swift Energy Co., Houston, will dedicate $160-175 million of a planned $350-400 million 2007 capital spending budget to giant Lake Washington oil field in Plaquemines Parish.
The company will drill 24-26 wells in the field and upgrade facilities. Several wells will go as deep as 14,000 ft. At least two rigs will operate in the field for most of 2007.
Swift plans to drill up to 8-10 wells in Bay de Chene and Cote Blanche Island fields and up to 4 wells in Horseshoe Bayou, Bayou Sale, and Jeanerette fields. At least 5 of the wells will be on 3D seismic prospects.
Texas (North)
XTO Energy Inc., Fort Worth, plans to drill 280-300 new wells in 2007 in the Fort Worth basin Barnett shale gas play.
Production averaged a net 223 MMcfd (311 MMcfd gross) in the fourth quarter of 2006, making the company the play’s second largest producer after Devon Energy Corp., Oklahoma City.
The company anticipates employing 15 rigs on its core acreage near Fort Worth and another nine rigs in noncore counties to the west and south. It is expanding pipeline and compression facilities to handle 840 MMcfd by the end of 2008 compared with 465 MMcfd of takeaway capacity at present.
Texas (Panhandle)
Brigham Exploration Co., Austin, expects to receive final processed data in the second quarter of 2007 from a proprietary 180-sq-mile high-resolution 3D seismic survey in the eastern Texas Panhandle.
The data should assist in further defining the structure at Mills Ranch field in Wheeler County and evaluating nearby exploration prospects, two of which the company plans to drill in late 2007.
Brigham’s latest development well, Mills Ranch 96-1, began gas sales on Mar. 14 at 4.5 MMcfd from Siluro-Devonian Hunton. Once Hunton tests are complete, the company will commingle Ordovician Viola, previously tested at 3 MMcfd.
The well encountered 300 ft of apparent net pay below 24,000 ft in Viola and Lower, Middle, and Upper Hunton.
