Area Drilling

Feb. 5, 2007

Guinea

Hyperdynamics Corp., Houston, was attempting to interest potential farmees in a 31,000 sq mile concession in the Atlantic off nonproducing Guinea that it has held for several years.

The block, which the company calls the largest license acreage position off West Africa, lies halfway between oil production off Mauritania and Ivory Coast. The company’s SCS Corp. subsidiary holds the block.

Hyperdynamics has shot 5,000 km of 2D seismic, run a geochemical drop core survey, performed a remote sensing satellite study for oil seeps, and completed an independent integrated interpretation of the data.

As part of its production sharing contract, the company plans to acquire and interpret as much as 18,000 km of seismic by late 2008.

A subsidiary of GlobalSantaFe Corp. is nearing completion of a study to identify logistics needed to support future drilling and production operations.

India

Hardy Oil & Gas PLC, London, was testing more zones at an apparent discovery on the CY-OS/2 license in the northern Cauvery basin.

The Fan A-1 well, drilled to TD 4,089 m, encountered several Cretaceous hydrocarbon sands with high pressures, of which the company identified five for potential production and chose three for tests.

The first zone, at 3,755-3,817 m, was perforated across 9 m and flowed gas and 42° gravity oil to surface before test difficulties ensued. Hardy may sidetrack and retest the zone after gauging the shallower intervals.

The second interval, at 3,565-69 m, was under test in early January at an initial 10 MMscfd of gas with 20 bbl/MMscf of condensate on a 52/64-in. choke. Interests in the 859 sq km license are Hardy 75% and Gas Authority of India Ltd. 25%.

Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. and GeoGlobal Resources Inc., Calgary, will soon have three rigs drilling on exploration block KG-OSN-2001/3 in the Krishna-Godavari basin off eastern India.

The Essar Wildcat self-propelled semisubmersible, capable of drilling to 7,600 m in 400 m of water, is to begin drilling in deeper-water parts of the block by April under a 2-year contract with two 1-year extension options.

The Atwood Beacon jack up spud the KG-16 well on Jan. 3, 5 km east of the KG-8 platform where the Saipem Perro Negro-3 jack up is located. KG-16 is a vertical well projected to 5,500 m in 109 m of water to further delineate the KG structure.

Perro Negro-3 is to spud the KG-28, its sixth well of 10 contracted, in early February. It is projected to 5,500 m with 1,500 m of deviation to the east.

The same rig just completed tests of KG-15, where perforations at 4,464-4,587 m stabilized at 8.5 MMscfd of gas and 55 b/d of condensate on a 20/64-in. choke with 3,893 psi flowing wellhead pressure. The companies said the activity shows their resolve to fulfill the KG drilling obligations and place Deen Dayal field on production as soon as possible.

Nicaragua

Norwood Resources Ltd., Vancouver, BC, is drilling two wells on the 845,780-acre Oklanicsa Block in the Sandino basin on Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast southwest of Managua.

San Bartolo Rodriguez Cano-1 was projected to 2,700 m with objectives in Oligocene Middle Masachapa and Eocene Upper and Middle Brito. The rig is then to move to Las Mesas Gutierrez Mendez-1.

South Australia

Innamincka Petroleum Ltd., Brisbane, plans to further explore and develop Flax and Juniper oil fields in PEL 103 in the Cooper basin, having completed purchase of a 65% interest in the license from Vernon E. Faulconer Australia Inc., private Tyler, Tex., independent.

Consulting geoscientists in 2006 estimated 4 million bbl to be recoverable from Flax with produced gas reinjection. They estimated 66 million bbl of oil in place at Juniper. Yarrow gas field, just west, was given 22.8 bcf of gas recoverable. The hydrocarbons are in Permian sandstones. The oil is 52° gravity.

More drilling is needed to determine whether Flax and Juniper might comprise a single field covering as much as 40,000 acres. Flax, discovered in 2004, has produced more than 45,000 bbl of oil.

Trinidad and Tobago

Maxim Resources Inc., Vancouver, BC, said it signed a letter of intent to acquire the interests it does not already own in the South Erin Project in Trinidad, where an oil discovery is on production and 10 development locations have been identified.

The operator, private Jasmin Oil & Gas Ltd., placed the Erin-98 well on production in mid-November 2006 at around 200 b/d on a choke from one zone, the Miocene Lower Forest A formation. The well tapped 210 ft of net pay in three zones. The crude is exported from Point Fortin.

The 1,350-acre block is 40 miles southwest of Port of Spain and just west of giant Erin/Palo Seco oil field.

Gulf of Mexico

Royal Exploration Co., private Corpus Christi independent, has brought forward plans to drill on Eugene Island Block 310 in the Gulf of Mexico after securing a rig.

Petsec Energy Ltd., 50-50 partner, said it hopes for first production by the end of 2007 from the well, which is updip from a 1977 undeveloped Transco gas-condensate discovery.

The prospect is in 204 ft of water 87 miles off Louisiana and 45 miles southeast of Petsec’s Vermilion 258 gas production platform. The companies also plan to drill a well at Mobile Bay Block 994 in mid-February and six to nine wells at Petsec’s Moonshine project onshore Louisiana.

Louisiana

Peoples Energy Production and others are attempting to improve production in Edgerly field in Calcasieu Parish by reworking wells.

The NAL-4 well emerged from a workover making 30 b/d of oil, and the rate is expected to rise as the well cleans up and stabilizes, said participant Texhoma Energy Inc., Houston.

NAL-3, next in line for workover, is to be equipped with a submersible pump for the first time. The field, 10 miles northeast of Vinton, had four wells making a combined 500 b/d before the rework program, with about half that coming from NAL-3.

Texas (South)

Pearl Exploration & Production Ltd., Calgary, plans to attempt initial heavy oil production from the first of two pilot wells at a cyclic steam injection project in the Maverick basin in southern Texas.

The company has injected more than 50,000 bbl of steam into the Lower Cretaceous Upper San Miguel formation at 700-1,100 b/d with 550-650° F. wellhead temperatures. An initial soak period at the first well ended in mid-January. The second well remains on initial steam injection.

Pearl, formerly Newmex Minerals Inc., is operator with 75% interest. The Exploration Co., San Antonio, has 25% (OGJ Online, Dec. 9, 2005).

Washington

A unit of Torrent Energy Corp., Portland, plans to start drilling in the Chehalis basin in the next few months as drilling permits are approved.

Torrent’s Cascadia Energy Corp. has leased and optioned more than 155,000 acres of private and state lands in Lewis, Cowlitz, and Skamania counties. The holdings lie south of the Centralia-Chehalis bituminous coal field, site of the state’s largest open pit mine and thermal power plant.

Three drilling permits are filed, and more are to be filed soon (OGJ Online, Dec. 28, 2006). The initial wells will target the regional coal seams and investigate potential conventional natural gas prospects similar to those in Mist gas field in Oregon and Jackson Prairie gas storage field in Washington.

The first well will offset a 2001 well that cut several thick coal seams and tested 715 Mcfd of conventional gas from a high-porosity gas sand.

Wyoming

Warren Resources Inc., New York, was drilling a Hanna basin wildcat designed to eventually test the Jurassic Nugget formation at 14,062 ft in late January near the top of Cretaceous Dakota sand. The company holds 7,100 net acres in the basin and shares with Stone Energy Corp., Lafayette, an adjoining 5,600 gross acres on a farmout from Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

A full evaluation of the 14,188-acre South Seminoe prospect in Carbon County is several weeks away, but based on forthcoming results and interpretations it might decide to test the Pennsylvanian Tensleep formation at 16,200 ft, Warren said.