Venezuela
The Baripetrol SA joint venture’s $60 million 2008 budget for the Colon Block in western Venezuela calls for drilling four development wells in La Palma field, a 165 sq km 3D seismic shoot in Socuavo field, and 20 workovers in Los Manueles and Rosario fields. Baripetrol’s gross production is 10,500 b/d of oil and 5 MMcfd of gas, and the yearend 2008 target is 15,000 b/d and 10 MMcfd. A drilling rig under contract to Baripetrol through 2011 is to begin operations in April.
PetroFalcon Corp., Caracas, has a 5% interest in the Baripetrol joint venture.
Alberta
Stealth Ventures Ltd., Calgary, is pursuing what it calls Alberta’s first commercial shale gas development at Wildmere, 120 miles east-southeast of Edmonton. The company has completed 10 wells of a planned 80-well program in 2008 for biogenic gas in Upper Cretaceous Colorado Group shales.
Stealth said it booked 12.4 bcf of proved and probable reserves in 2007 from 39 gross (29 net) wells across 15 townships. The 2P reserve life index is 15.7 years. The company holds 122 gross (83 net) sections of land at Wildmere.
The wells are expected to be classified as low-productivity, thereby qualifying for lower government royalties starting in 2009.
Newfoundland
Shoal Point Energy Ltd. has spud the directional Shoal Point et al. 2K-39 well on the northern tip of Shoal Point toward a subsurface target under Port au Port Bay in western Newfoundland.
The primary target is the Ordovician Aguathuna formation of the St. George’s Group that produces 51° gravity oil and gas at Garden Hill field. The well is to terminate 2,200 m, or a few degrees west of due north of the point. Planned TD is 4,040 m, or 2,700 m true vertical depth, in the Watt’s Bight formation.
The well is to test a large, seismically defined structure genetically related to the Hunt-PanCanadian Port au Port-1 discovery at Garden Hill South.
Mississippi
EOG Resources Inc. plans to start the first meaningful gas production from horizontal development of the Cretaceous Selma chalk in 2009 in Jefferson Davis County southeast of Jackson.
It put horizontal recovery potential at a net 200 bcf of gas or 60% recovery on 14,000 net acres. Recovery factor was 15% from the company’s vertical drilling in the area. EOG has drilled three horizontal wells into the upper and lower chalk.