Area Drilling

Feb. 26, 2007

Jamaica

Petroleum Corp. of Jamaica offered four land and 12 offshore blocks for license by a May 1, 2007, deadline.

Eight blocks are under license, mostly in the Caribbean Sea off the island’s southwest coast.

A joint venture of Finder Exploration Pty. Ltd., Perth, and Gippsland Offshore Petroleum Ltd., Melbourne, acquired 6,000 line-km of seismic surveys and 23,000 line km of aeromagnetic and gravity data in 2006 on blocks 6, 7, 10, 11, and 12 in the Walton basin (OGJ Online, Apr. 4, 2006).

Rainville Ltd., Calgary, holds blocks 9, 13, and 14 and plans to shoot 2D seismic survey in mid-2007.

Mali

The government granted Selier Energy Ltd., a subsidiary of North Atlantic Resources Ltd., Toronto, oil and gas exploration Block 18 covering 4.8 million acres in the Macina graben 400 km northeast of Bamako.

The northeast-trending graben is 250 km long and 100 km wide in the southern Taoudeni basin and has an interpreted sedimentary sequence 12-14 km thick but no seismic surveys or drilling. Work program is $11.2 million in 4 years.

The Macina graben occupies the preexisting, southwest-trending Gourma aulacogen of the 800 million year old Pan African Pharusian fold belt. In the Gao region, in the eastern part of the Gourma aulacogen, 700 km east of the Macina project, Cretaceous source rocks but no shows were encountered in the off-structure Ansongo-1 well, TD 1,645 m in 1979.

Previous work in the Macina graben consists of a regional gravity survey in 1957 and airborne magnetic surveys in 1963 and 1979. That work led to definition of the Macina graben and the cogenetic Gao and Nara grabens.

North Atlantic Resources has eight gold exploration and development projects in Mali.

Alberta

Nexen Inc., Calgary, plans to spend $200 million on coalbed methane in Canada in 2007, off from $237 million spent in 2006.

The company, which is developing the first commercial CBM project in Cretaceous Mannville coals, has recognized 230 bcf of proved and probable reserves. However, Nexen said its ability to recognize proved reserves is limited until it attains enough production history to assess long-term decline rates.

The 2007 plan involves development of 98 gross sections of land in Corbett, Thunder, and Doris fields near Fort Assiniboine, Alta., using single and multileg horizontal wells.

The company’s CBM production target is at least 150 MMcfd by 2011.

Gulf of Mexico

Bois d’Arc Energy Inc., Houston, has a $200 million budget for 2007 that includes expansion into the deepwater Gulf of Mexico by participating in three unspecified projects.

The budget includes drilling 15 wells, including two deep shelf prospects, but the company has deferred drilling the ultradeep Calamity Jane prospect until 2008. Seven of the wells will be drilled deeper than 15,000 ft or in deep water.

The 2006 program resulted in 10 successful wells and three dry holes. The largest discoveries were Sockeye on South Pelto Block 22 and Steelhead at Ship Shoal Block 111. Exploratory wells were successful at Ship Shoal 166, TD 15,709 ft with 72 net ft of pay sands in two commercial reservoirs, and South Timbalier 111 in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2006.

Comstock Resources Inc., Frisco, Tex., owns 48% of Bois d’Arc Energy.

Corrections

The Exploration Co., San Antonio, is the operator with 50% interest in an early-stage cyclic steam injection project aimed at producing heavy oil in the Maverick basin, Maverick County, Tex.

An item misstated the operator as Pearl Exploration & Production Ltd., Calgary (OGJ Online, Jan. 15, 2007). Pearl is a participant with 50% interest.

An article about Powder River basin coalbed methane should have said that 52 million bbl, not b/d, of produced water has been reinjected into wells permitted by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, and 45 million bbl, not b/d, is treated by an ion exchange process (OGJ, Jan. 22, 2007, p. 34).