Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has let a $350 million engineering, procurement, and construction contract to Petrofac Ltd. for the Kauther gas-condensate field depletion-compression project.
Petrofac will design the gas compression system and associated facilities at the Kauther gas plant, as well commission and operate them for 6 months.
Petrofac completed the 20 MMcfd, single-train separation Kauther gas plant in 2007. PDO operates the Al Dakhlia region field (OGJ Online, June 26, 2006). Conditioned gas from the plant flows into the domestic gas system. Condensate is transported to the Saih Rawl central processing plant (OGJ Online, Aug. 1, 2005).
Last year, condensate production increased from 48,000 b/d to over 77,000 b/d, an increase of more than 50% because of the first full year of operations of the Kauther gas plant.
PDO ordered advanced, high-pressure compression technology from GE Oil & Gas for 16 electric motor-driven centrifugal compressors for high-pressure injection applications in Kauther, Saih Nihayda, and Yibal gas fields of Oman. This contract is worth more than $250 million, and the equipment will be delivered in 2009-15 for 14 projects that will come on line in 2010-16.
Argentina
Americas Petrogas Inc., Calgary, became operator of the 50,900-acre Medanito Sur block in Argentina’s Neuquen basin.The company’s partners are Argentina’s state Energia Argentina SA (Enarsa) and a local private company.
Americas, as operator, is entitled to receive 70% of the cash flow until it has recovered capital expenditures.
Recent analysis and integration of well and seismic data identified as many as 25 lower- risk drilling targets.
Americas Petrogas holds 2 million acres in 16 large blocks in the basin.
Australia
Beach Petroleum Ltd., Adelaide, reported that oil flowed at a 2,600-b/d rate at Butlers-1, a discovery well in PEL 92 and one of the most westerly producing wells in the Cooper-Eromanga basin of South Australia. The well flowed with 43 psi on a 2-in. choke from perforations at 1,300-1,303 m in 4.5-m of Cretaceous-Jurassic Namur sandstone.
The flow rate “confirms the excellent flow characteristics interpreted from logs and will assist in determination of the most appropriate form of artificial lift installation,” Beach Petroleum said.
Interests are Beach Petroleum 75% and Cooper Energy Ltd. 25%.
Egypt
Dana Gas Egypt said two wells are averaging 12 MMscfd of dry gas from Sondos field, a February 2009 discovery on the West El Manzala concession in Egypt’s Nile Delta.
The field’s estimated reserves are 20 bcf. Gas is delivered to the company’s South El Manzala plant.
Dana Gas also increased production at El Basant field to an undisclosed level with completion of the El Basant-3 development well in June 2009.
Edison SPA said the western part of the Sidi Abd El Rahman block (Block 8) in the Mediterranean off western Egypt still has oil and gas potential after it abandoned the Saer Offshore-1X wildcat as noncommercial. TD is 4,059 m.
Edison, a subsidiary of PTT Exploration & Production Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand, and Chile’s state Sipetrol have shot 3D seismic and identified more prospects in the western part of the block. Edison holds a 40% participation interest in Block 8 with PTTEP and Sipetrol each holding 30% interest. The companies won the 4,294 sq km block in a 2006 Egyptian licensing round.
India
Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. and GeoGlobal Resources Inc., Calgary, are starting development of Tarapur 1 oil field in western India’s Cambay basin.
Full field development is to involve 17 wells by the end of 2009. An engineering report attributes 1.753 million stb of proved developed nonproducing oil reserves to the first six wells. GeoGlobal’s interest is 14%.
Production in May from the first three wells totaled 8,155 bbl of oil and 3.6 MMscf of gas. In June the three wells averaged 466 b/d and 420 Mcfd.
British Columbia
The shale gas play in Northeast British Columbia’s Horn River basin is still attracting participants even though only about 75 wells have been drilled there.
ExxonMobil Corp. and its Canadian affiliate reported having amassed a 250,000-acre position, eight tracts of which it acquired at a provincial land sale in early July. The company said its first four wells tested at 16-18 MMcfd (OGJ Online, July 10, 2009).
Meanwhile, TAQA North, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. PJSC, acquired 32,000 acres 30 miles north of Fort Nelson in the same sale.
The Canadian subsidiary was formed in August 2007 to acquire Northrock Resources, a subsidiary of Pogo Producing Co., Houston.
Since then, with two other acquisitions from Pioneer Canada and Prime West Energy Trust, TAQA has vaulted among Canada’s top 12 oil and gas producers. It also has operations in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
Nova Scotia
PetroWorth Resources Inc., Calgary, is shooting 80 line-km of 2D seismic on the Lake Ainslie block on southern Cape Breton Island, NS.
Numerous oil seeps have been observed on the 383,000-acre property, and most of the shallow wells drilled in the late 1800s-early 1900s encountered oil and-or gas. Oil from one well was sold in the US. The seismic survey, aimed at identifying a petroleum system, is to be complete in early August.
New Mexico
Analysis of geological and geophysical data by Thomasson Partner Associates Inc., Denver, revealed indicators of a Pennsylvanian basin buried beneath Cretaceous sediments in Colfax County, NM, said Sun River Energy Inc., Wheat Ridge, Colo. Such “elevator basins,” in which a combined source and reservoir rock package are sealed, buried, and matured, exist elsewhere in New Mexico (OGJ, Jan. 8, 2001, p. 32).
Sun River Energy, which holds 120,000 acres in the Raton basin in northern Colfax County, is seeking partners for exploratory drilling. It believes that parts of the acreage may be prospective for coalbed methane, gas in Cretaceous Pierre shale, and oil and gas in the elevator basin.
