Brazil
Brookwater Ventures Inc., Calgary, has retained Geopex Consultoria, Salvador, Brazil, on an exclusive basis to aid in exploring Reconcavo basin Block REC-T-166 and to participate in the ANP 11th bid round.
Brookwater said Sonangol Starfish Oil & Gas SA, a subsidiary of Angola's state oil company, operator with 40% working interest, will spud an exploratory well on Block 166 in the last quarter of 2011. Brookwater's Brazilian subsidiary, Agua Grande Exploracao e Producao de Petroleo Ltda., has 30% working interest in Block 166, and Somoil Internacional de Petroleo do Brasil Ltda. has 30%.
The 1-MAC-1-BA well is to target the Macauba prospect, identified after proprietary 3D seismic was procured by the concessionaires. The well is intended to evaluate four targets to a planned total depth of 2,500 m.
Egypt
Melrose Resources PLC plans to drill a 3D seismic prospect in the underexplored Cretaceous oil play in Egypt's onshore Nile Delta in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Al Hajarisah is one prospect the company identified on the Southeast Mansoura concession among multiple oil prospects and leads.
France
Noble Energy Inc., operator of the Rhone Maritime concession in the Mediterranean off France, may shoot 3D seismic on the block depending on the outcome of detailed interpretation of the blockwide 7,500 km of 2D survey.
Initial data analysis is focused on the postsalt Pliocene and presalt Miocene sections that have yielded material discoveries elsewhere in the Mediterranean and has already indicated the presence of large structures, said Melrose Resources PLC, which has 27.5% interest in the block.
Guinea
Hyperdynamics Corp., Houston, has spudded Sabu-1, the first of two wildcats on its 25,000 sq km concession off Guinea.
The Jasper Explorer drill ship is to take the well to 3,600 m in 700 m of water to evaluate a four-way anticline oil prospect in Upper Cretaceous sands. The vessel will then move to drill Baraka-1.
Hyperdynamics is operator of the concession with 77% interest, and Dana Petroleum PLC, Aberdeen, a subsidiary of Korea National Oil Corp., has 23%.
Iraq
Iraq has given final approval to the Akkas gas field development project in the Western Desert in Anbar Province near the border with eastern Syria.
Korea Gas Corp. will submit a development plan within 6 months for the field, estimated to contain 5.68 tscf of initial gas in place (OGJ, Oct. 3, 2011, p. 86). Development work may not begin for a year or more, press reports said.
Kogas has 75% interest in Akkas, and Iraq's state North Oil Co. has 25%. Early exploratory drilling in the area dates to the early 1990s.
Ireland
The Irish energy ministry has granted Providence Resources PLC standard exploration license 1/11, successor to licensing option 08/1, on which the company plans to spud the vertical 48/24-J Barryroe well in the North Celtic Sea basin off Ireland in November 2011.
The well will appraise the 1990 Marathon 48/24-3 well that tested 45° gravity, high pour point oil at 1,600 b/d from Base Cretaceous sands. Providence plans to test 48/24-J with vacuum insulated tubing. Data in overlying secondary objectives will also be acquired as these tested at 1,500 b/d of oil from two previous wells on the structure, Providence said.
Providence is operator with 50% interest. San Leon Energy PLC has 30%, and Lansdowne Oil & Gas PLC has 20%.
New Zealand
A group led by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is starting a 3D seismic survey on PEP 38451 in the Deepwater Taranaki basin off New Zealand.
The group will shoot 1,800 sq km over parts of the permit to be retained for a second 5-year term. Primary targets of 3D are the Romney and Coopworth prospects, defined on prior 2D surveys.
Anadarko shot 5,600 km of 2D seismic in mid-2010, and previous operator Global Resource Holdings LLLP, Denver, collected more than 3,000 km. Existence of an active petroleum system hasn't been confirmed. Drilling could follow as early as the 2012-13 summer.
Poland
Aurelian Oil & Gas PLC has discovered a preliminary 10-20 bcf of gas in place in Permian Rotliegendes sandstones at the Krzesinki-1 exploratory well on Poznan East Block 207 in Poland.
The well encountered a 65-m gas column, and 175 m of core has been recovered. The extensive quantity of core recovered has so far yielded measured ambient porosities of 5% to 16% and ambient permeability of 0.04 md to 40.0 md in the gas column. The well is to be tested by the end of 2011.
Krzesinki-1 is on the same license as Aurelian's Siekierki tight gas field project and 8 km west of the Trzek-3 multifrac horizontal well on pressure buildup following the recent long-term flow test. Krzesinki will be included in Siekierki development planning.
Syria
Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc., Calgary, said its Loon Latakia Ltd. subsidiary has suspended its Itheria-1 wildcat on Block 9 in northwestern Syria after drilling to 2,072 m.
The company had planned to drill to 3,256 m near the southeast corner of the block (OGJ Online, July 22, 2011). Kulczyk's request for an extension of the first exploration period was refused, but the PSC remains in effect and discussions continue. The company will monitor operating conditions in Syria to assess when and if it is possible to resume drilling.
The well was designed to evaluate multiple zones on a large structure with four-way dip closure defined by 3D seismic in an area 200 km due east of Latakia. The well penetrated Ordovician Affendi sandstone, the first objective encountered, at 1,470 m but the zone had insufficient porosity or permeability to be a potential reservoir.
Two other potential reservoirs, the Ordovician Khanasser sandstone and the Middle Cambrian Burj carbonate, are expected below the suspended depth. The geological and petrophysical information obtained thus far at Itheria will now be assessed to review the prospectivity of the deeper objectives in Itheria and in the nearby Bashaer prospect.
Tajikistan
Tethys Petroleum Ltd. reperforated and acidized the BST20 well in Beshtentak field in Tajikistan and after applying natural gas lift obtained a flow of 533 b/d of 38° gravity oil and 441 Mcfd of gas on a 25/64-in. choke with 377 psi flowing tubinghead pressure.
The well is being placed on production and the gas tied into the local grid. Sales agreements are being finalized. Beshtentak field, which has gross prospective resources of 11.7 million bbl of oil and 16.1 bcf of gas, has other workover candidates.
Elsewhere in Tajikistan, tests on the East Olimtoi-09 oil discovery continues with acidizing about to be carried out on the Upper Bukhara-Lower Alai carbonate sequence.
Transportation and logistics issues have slowed arrival in country of nitrogen lift equipment, now expected in early November.
The Persea PER01 exploratory well is drilling ahead at 1,573 m and expected to reach total depth of 2,700 m. It targets a four-way dip closed prospect at Alai and Bukhara levels near the town of Kurgon-Teppa.
Oklahoma
The Osage Nation has sued in federal court in Tulsa asking a permanent injunction against construction of a 150-Mw wind farm in Osage County.
Wind Capital Group., St. Louis, Mo., proposed to start construction within months of 94 wind turbines on 8,300 acres mostly north of US 60 near Burbank, halfway between Pawhuska and Ponca City.
The Osage County Board of Adjustment voted in August to grant a variance for the project.
The lawsuit states that building and operating the turbines, their foundations, and electric lines will interfere with the construction of flow lines for natural gas. It says federal law guarantees oil and gas lessees access to the surface above the mineral estate.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs has opposed the wind project, saying it would interfere with current and future oil and gas development in violation of federal and state law.
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