A three-company group has signed an agreement with Uruguay's state ANCAP, Montevideo, to explore two blocks on the Uruguayan continental shelf.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA of Brazil will operate one of the blocks, and Argentine firm YPF SA will operate the other. Galp Energia of Portugal is the third company in both groups.
Signing of the production sharing agreement completes the bid process for the exploration blocks under Ronda Uruguay 2009 for the Pelotas and Punta del Este basins. The partnership made the best offer in July 2009 for Blocks 3 and 4 in the south-southeastern region of the Punta del Este basin (see map, OGJ, July 20, 2009, p. 40).
Block 3 is 300 km off Uruguay in 200-1,500 m of water, and Block 4 is 150 km off the coast in 100-200 m of water.
Petrobras will operate Block 4 with 40% interest, and YPF has 40% and Petrogal 20%. YPF will operate Block 3 with 40%, and Petrobras has 40% and Petrogal 20%.
The companies have 4 years to study seismic data and decide whether to drill. In the tender, the companies committed to shoot 2D seismic surveys and reprocess existing data.
ChinaPrimeline Energy Holdings Inc., London, and China National Offshore Oil Corp. plan to spud an exploratory well in mid-2010 in the East China Sea.
Subject to board approval, a jack up rig will drill the well on Block 25/34 at the LS35-3-1 location about 14.5 km from the Lishui 36-1 gas-condensate discovery. The location, one of several targets identified on a 3D seismic survey, is close enough to be tied back to Lishui 36-1, for which a development plan is to be submitted soon.
The companies are committed to drill two exploration wells on the block by April 2012. Cost of the first well is estimated at $25 million, far less than prices quoted in 2008-09.
Ghana
Kosmos Energy LLC, private Dallas independent, let a contract to OHM Rock Solid Images, Houston, for a seismic reservoir characterization study of Odum field on the West Cape Three Points block off Ghana.
A 500 sq km 3D seismic data volume will be inverted for reservoir properties and calibrated to the Odum-1 and Odum-2 discoveries. The discoveries are in the West African Transform Margin play 18 km east of Kosmos' Mahogany-1 exploration well and giant Jubilee oil field.
Kosmos Energy said, "When confronted with a slope channel complex such as that encountered in the Campanian-aged Odum discovery, an advanced reservoir characterization study based on seismic and well data is an effective tool for reservoir delineation and appraisal."
Guyana
Canadian independents Groundstar Resources Ltd. and Canacol Energy Ltd. plan to appraise the Karanambo-1 discovery well in the Guyana part of the Takutu basin in mid-2010.
The companies are reviewing bids for a drilling rig and support services. The companies have built a drill pad, access road, and staging areas and purchased and mobilized tubulars and wellheads for three wells 200 miles south of Georgetown near the border with Brazil.
Bottomhole location of the K-2 well will be 400 m northwest of Karanambo-1 and will target the same reservoirs that drillstem tested 411 b/d of 42° gravity oil at 8,946-9,290 ft in 1982 (OGJ, Apr. 26, 1982, p. 102). The former Home Oil Co. Ltd. believed the interval covered Jurassic carbonates and Triassic basalt.
Gaffney Cline and Associates attributed a gross mean risked recoverable prospective resource of 128 million bbl of oil to the discovery in a December 2009 report compiled for Canacol.
Drilling cost of K-2 net to Canacol's 65% interest is $6 million, and Canacol will become operator at total depth.
Alabama
Cane River Resources Inc., Conroe, Tex., has 33,000 acres of leases it believes prospective for gas in Conasauga shale in Alabama and Georgia.
Its Broomtown prospect is in Cherokee County, Ala., and Chatooga County, Ga., 80 miles northeast of subcommercial Big Canoe Creek gas field in northern St. Clair County, Ala., and about the same distance northwest of Atlanta.
It estimates Conasauga has 0.5% to 1.5% total organic carbon and 500 bcf of gas in place.
Cane River wants a partner to drill three 5,000-ft wells at about $250,000/well to earn an option to purchase its leasehold. It advises that the Conasauga, with high smectite content, should be drilled with air and dehydrators or with oil base mud.
California
Transco Oil & Gas, private Falcon, Colo., independent, is seeking partners to drill its North Semitropic prospect in Kern County, San Joaquin basin, California.
Target is oil in the McClure shale member of Miocene Monterey and two deeper targets. The three objectives have combined potential of 50 million bbl of oil and 20 bcf of gas.
Oligocene Vedder sand at 14,000 ft is the primary objective. Transco holds 2,300 acres.
Nevada
A newly listed UK company is attempting to mount an exploration effort in the Great Basin in northeastern Nye County, Nev., north of oil production in Railroad Valley.
U.S. Oil and Gas PLC, Dublin, holds 5,200 acres in Hot Creek Valley, just northwest of Railroad Valley. The company has completed a surface geochemical survey on the Eblana prospect area and plans to integrate the results with existing gravity and magnetics and well data to locate a drillsite.
Texas
North
Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc., Houston, set a $170 million capital budget for 2010, of which $130 million is dedicated to Barnett shale work.
The company finished 2009 with 33 net horizontal Barnett shale wells drilled and awaiting completion or pipeline connection. It drilled 9 net Barnett shale wells, ran fracs at 16, and placed 8 on production in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The 2010 budget includes funds to frac and complete 20 of its uncompleted Barnett wells. It plans to run three operated horizontal rigs in the Barnett all year.
Wyoming
Roxanna Oil Co., private Dallas firm, has leased more than 140,000 acres in the western Wyoming Overthrust where it seeks a partner to participate in drilling to the Meade Peak shale member of the Permian Phosphoria formation.
The Meade Peake is 13% total organic carbon, the highest shale TOC in the Rocky Mountain Region, Julie Garvin, geologist, said at the North American Prospect Expo. A well could penetrate 70-300 ft of dry gas-charged shale at 4,000-10,000 ft in depth.
The Meade Peake has never been horizontally drilled.
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