Calgary-based Petrolifera Petroleum Ltd. and Toronto’s Brownstone Ventures Inc. are acquiring 1,250 sq km of 3D seismic and drilling 12 wells in an exploration program on the Vaca Mahuida Block, west-central Argentina. Petrolifera estimated the actual cost of the work program proposed to the Rio Negro provincial government at about $20 million.
Brownstone is paying 50% of the costs of the Vaca Mahuida project to earn 25% working interest.1
In October, Petrolifera was testing exploratory well VM 2007 on the Vaca Mahuida Block. The company encountered live 29º API oil during drilling and initial swab tests and plans to stimulate the well over several intervals using hydraulic fracturing.1
The Centenario sandstone was the primary objective of this well, with several shallow reservoirs about 800 m subsurface. Should the well prove commercial, Petrolifera said it “anticipates early production with good follow-up potential.”
Vaca Mahuida
The 253,000-acre (1,025 sq km) Vaca Mahuida Block is in the northeastern shelf area of the Neuquen basin, Rio Negro Province (Fig. 1). The primary objective is a combination stratigraphic and structural play within the Jurassic Sierras Blancas formation, conceptually proven by Petrolifera in the Rinconada Block to the north. Petrolifera expects the play to continue southwards into Vaca Mahuida (Fig. 2).
Chevron shot 540 sq km of 3D seismic over the Vaca Mahuida Block in the late 1990s and Petrolifera also has 2D seismic of multiple vintages. Operators have drilled 13 exploration wells in the block, one of which tested 10 MMcfd natural gas from a thin interval in the Jurassic Loma Montosa formation, according to Petrolifera.2 There have also been multiple shows in the Sierras Blancas formation, as well as in the deeper Triassic section and the shallower Cretaceous Centenario formation.
Petrolifera drilled the first well on the Vaca Mahuida Block under the new program, VM 2001, in 2008. It was the twentieth consecutive successful well drilled, according to the company, and is now cased and awaiting testing. It’s situated on a four-way dip closure immediately south of the Rinconada Block and southwest of the Rx-1029 well. The Rx-1029 well was drilled and cased as potential production well, with oil in the Sierras Blancas and Loma Montosa formations.
Petrolifera operates one drilling rig and one workover rig in the area, down from four rigs in 2007, from Buenos Aires-based Quintana WellPro SA, a division of Houston’s Quintana Capital Group LP (Fig. 3). Quintana WellPro is operating in Argentina’s known producing regions: Neuquen, Comodoro Rivadavia, Las Heras, Rio Grande, and Punta Arenas.3
Petrolifera drilled dozens of wells on the Rinconada Block in 2007-08. Each well typically required about 11 days, including rig move, drilling time, logging, testing, and running casing.2
In early October, Petrolifera announced that the sole drilling rig was drilling a shallow exploratory well on the Rinconada Norte Block, to be followed by two low-risk infill wells in Puesto Morales field.
Argentina
According to the EIA International Energy Annual, Argentina was the third-largest oil producer in South America in 2006 (802,000 b/d), after Venezuela (2.8 million b/d), and Brazil (2.2 million b/d).4
Two onshore basins, Neuquen and Golfo San Jorge, produce most of the country’s oil.
Repsol-YPF dominates oil exploration and production activities; other significant oil-producing operators are Pan American Energy LLC, Chevron Argentina SRL, and Petrobras Energia de Argentina SA.4
In October, Petrobras Energia purchased Burlington Resources Argentina Holdings Ltd. for $77.6 million, increasing its holdings in Sierra Chata gas field in the Neuquen basin to 45.5523%, and the Parva Negra Block, to the north of Sierra Chata, to 100%.5
Petrolifera
Calgary’s Petrolifera Petroleum is involved in exploration and production in Colombia and Peru, as well as in Argentina. Petrolifera was founded by Connacher Oil & Gas Ltd., and Connacher currently controls 26%.
Petrolifera controls nearly 500,000 net developed and exploratory acres in Argentina’s Neuquen basin, in four concession areas: Puesto Morales-Rinconada, Gobernador Ayala, Vaca Mahuida, and Puesto Guevara (Fig. 1). The company’s production centers on its 100%-owned Puesto Morales-Rinconada concession, where it made several discoveries of light oil from 2005 to 2008.
Late last year, Petrolifera announced that light oil tested from the Jurassic Sierras Blancas sandstone in its PMN 1038 well suggested continuity between the north and central lobes of Puesto Morales Norte field in the Neuquen basin (OGJ, Dec. 17, 2007, p. 37).
Petrolifera has drilled more than 60 wells in Argentina and has recently installed waterflood treatment and water injection facilities. The company reported in quarterly results that it activated the Puesto Morales North waterflood in January 2008.
The light crude (29-46º API) and gas are transported by pipeline.
Brownstone
Brownstone is also participating in oil and gas exploration projects in the US (Piceance and Uinta basins in Colorado and Utah; Columbia River basin in Oregon), onshore Brazil, and the Arakan basin, India (OGJ Online, June 24, 2008).
References
- “Brownstone Provides Drilling Update In Argentina,” Oct. 9, 2008, http://brownstoneventures.com/main/?newsRoom&95.
- Quarterly reports and various news releases, www.petrolifera.ca.
- www.quintanawellpro.com.
- Argentina Country Analysis Brief, February 2008, www.eia.doe.gov/ emeu/cabs/Argentina/Full.html.
- “Petrobras Energia SA acquisition of interest in hydrocarbon concessions in Argentina,” press release, Oct. 3, 2008, www.petrobras.com.ar.
