Albania
Petromanas Energy Inc., Calgary, said it has drilled the Shpirag-2 well in Albania's Berati thrust belt to 4,230 m in the flysch shale and expects to encounter the target carbonate at about 5,000 m.
After setting casing to 3,414 m and reaching a depth of 4,465 m, the well experienced instability resulting in a sidetrack. With recent tectonic activity in the area affecting the stability of the flysch shale, the company is evaluating options including the optimal depth to set casing to put the unstable zone behind pipe.
Petromanas plans to penetrate 1,100 m of carbonate to reach a target depth of 6,100 m sometime in late 2012 or early 2013. Tests will follow.
Geotec SPA is shooting a test line to determine final shot parameters for the planned program of 400-500 line-km of 2D seismic to be completed in 2013 on blocks 2 and 3. Under the terms of the Petromanas farmout agreement with Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Shell will carry the first $20 million of the seismic program with any excess amount shared equally by both parties.
Petromanas has spudded the 100% owned Juban-1 well on Block A and plans to drill to 2,600 m in 30 days at a cost of $9 million. The company's shallowest prospect, Juban will enable Petromanas to begin assessing the potential of the carbonates in northern Albania outside areas of current production.
Petromanas is awaiting Albanian government approval of an extension to Dec. 25, 2013, to complete its obligations on blocks D and E. The company will use data from Shpirag and Juban to determine how best to meet its commitments for the extension period. Petromanas considers the blocks to be of higher risk than Blocks 2 and 3 and relatively costly to explore based on the lower prospective resource volumes allocated to the Papri prospect.
Egypt Sea
A unit of Sea Dragon Energy Inc., Calgary, has acquired National Petroleum Co. Shukheir Marine Ltd. from National Petroleum Co. Egypt Ltd. for $250,000 cash and assumption of a $3 million working capital deficiency.
The acquired assets include a 100% participating interest in the Shukheir Marine concession that contains Shukheir Bay and Gamma oil fields in Gulf of Suez shallow water. The concession produces 460 b/d of oil. NPC SHM also owns $4 million in oil field inventory that can be applied toward operations.
Sea Dragon intends to further develop the concession by pursuing development and exploration opportunities identified on 3D seismic and by geological mapping.
Shukheir Bay field covers 5 sq km and was discovered in 1980 with a deviated well that indicated oil in the Miocene Lower Rudeis sandstones. Five more deviated wells were drilled. The field produced 410 b/d of 34° gravity oil in October 2012 from two wells.
Gamma field covers 23.7 sq km and was discovered in 1987 by an exploratory well that tested oil from the Miocene Kareem formation and Cretaceous Nubia sandstones. Eight more wells were drilled.
In October 2012 the GA-1 well averaged 50 b/d of 44° gravity oil from the Miocene Kareem formation. sandstone in the GA-1 well.
Sea Dragon said Shukheir Bay is a mature field with low risk development drilling locations and workover opportunities, and Gamma field has a large exploration target identified on trend to a well that discovered a significant oil column in the Nubia formation.
With 950 b/d of output from the NW Gemsa concession and 250 b/d from the Kom Ombo concession, the company's production totals 1,650 b/d.
Ghana
Ophir Energy PLC has taken a farmout on the Offshore Accra Contract Area offshore Ghana and will operate the Starfish-1 deepwater exploratory well recommended for drilling in 2013.
The well will target what one of the participants calls a large, deepwater, Jubilee look-a-like trap with a midrange estimated prospective resource of 431 million bbl of oil and a mean of 665 million bbl.
Ophir will operate for the new contractor group with a 20% participating interest. Afex Oil (Ghana) Ltd. has 20%, Vitol Upstream (Accra) Ltd. 30%, Tap Oil Ltd. 17.5%, and Rialto Energy (Ghana) Ltd. 12.5% conditional on providing a bank guarantee. Challenger Minerals (Ghana) Ltd. has exited the contractor group.
Indonesia
Niko Resources Ltd., Calgary, has spudded the Ajek-1 exploratory well in the Kofiau block in the Salawati area of West Papua, Indonesia. Drilling time is 40-45 days to 5,900 ft.
Niko noted that the 2,400 nautical mile move to Kofiau from western Indonesia took only 23 days, much faster than anticipated, demonstrating the operational efficiency of the Ocean Monarch semisubmersible and the company's Indonesian drilling team (OGJ Online, Nov. 12, 2012).
Norway
Lundin Petroleum AB, operator of PL501 on the Johan Sverdrup discovery in the North Sea offshore Norway, said the 16/2-16 appraisal well met its initial objectives and will now be sidetracked westward.
Drilled on the northeastern flank of the discovery 3 km from the 16/2-6 discovery well and the recent 16/2-13A well in PL501 and the 16/2-10 well in PL265, the 16/2-16 well's objectives were to establish the depth to the top reservoir, reservoir quality, the oil-water contact, and the aquifer quality.
The well encountered the top reservoir on prognosis at 1,924 m below mean sea level (MSL) and the OWC at 1,925 m below MSL. The OWC is the same as in the 16/2-13A well and about 3 m deeper than the previously identified OWC in other PL501 wells. A total of 15 m of sand was found in a 60 m Jurassic sequence. The well was drilled to a depth of 2,188 m below MSL.
Lundin will now sidetrack 1,000 m to improve understanding of lateral variations in reservoir qualities and the relation between the different OWCs. The well is also important in relation to the water injection strategy to be applied during production.
PL501 interests are Lundin Norway 40%, Statoil Petroleum AS with a 40%, and Maersk Oil Norway AS 20%.
Maersk Oil Norway AS has spudded an exploratory well on the Albert prospect in PL 513 in the Haltenbanken area of the Norwegian Sea offshore Norway.
Dana Petroleum PLC has a 50% interest in the license that contains Albert, a Cretaceous Lysing gas-condensate prospect to be drilled to 3,500 m. The rig is the Transocean Barents semisubmersible. Albert is just northwest of Victoria, one of the largest gas discoveries on the Norwegian Continental Shelf not yet developed.
The Albert well is last in Dana's four-well 2012 drilling campaign in Norway for 2012. Albert will test the same reservoir types that have proven hydrocarbons in adjacent Skarv, Marulk, and Snadd fields. A discovery at Albert would also open up for further investigation several adjacent prospects in neighboring licenses held by Dana, the company said.
Pakistan
Eni SPA has added an interest in 7,500 sq km ultradeepwater Block G as a third block in its holdings in the Indus basin offshore Pakistan.
Eni acquired a 25% interest and operatorship of the block from Oil & Gas Development Corp. Ltd., which retained 25%. Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. and United Energy Pakistan Ltd. each holds 25% interest in Block G.
The block is in an area Eni calls underexplored but promising, and Eni will conduct a multidisciplinary study to define the most appropriate way to explore it.
Eni already has a 60% interest in Block C and a 70% interest in Block N, both of which are near Block G.
Peru
Gran Tierra Energy Inc., Calgary, plans to spud the Bretana Norte 95-2-1XD exploratory well on Block 95 in Peru's Maranon basin this month.
Drilling is to continue into the first quarter of 2013. Block 95 contains the 1974 Bretana-1 well that tested 18° gravity oil at rates of 807 b/d on natural flow and was never placed on production.
The company holds 100% working interest in Block 95 and is operator subject to official approval.
The well is part of a $363 million capital program for 2013 that includes $202 million for drilling, half of it for exploratory drilling. Besides Bretana Norte, the company plans to drill 10 wells in Colombia, 6 in Argentina, and 2 in Brazil.
Sudan
Sirocco Energy Ltd., Perth, formerly Agri Energy Ltd., is attempting to raise funds for its share of the cost to explore the remote 100,000 sq km Block 14 in northwestern Sudan.
Statesman Resources Ltd., Vancouver, BC, operates Block 14, in which Sirocco has a 37.4% interest (OGJ Online, Nov. 9, 2012).
Block 14 lies south of the El Mesaha block in southwestern Egypt, where Petroceltic International, Beach Energy, Hellenic Petroleum, and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration are drilling an exploratory well. The block also borders Libya.
Just south of Block 14, a well drilled by Sahara Oil Co. and the Al Qahtani joint venture had intermittent oil shows over a 300-m interval as the first exploratory penetration in the Mourdi subbasin.
Tunisia
Sonde Resources Corp., Calgary, reached agreement with the Joint Oil authority on terms for Sonde to enter the second phase of the exploration period on the Joint Oil block in the Gulf of Gabes offshore Libya and Tunisia.
The agreement allows Sonde to defer the three exploratory well obligations into the second phase of the exploration period and avoid the $15 million potential penalty for each well had Sonde not spudded by December 2012. Joint Oil's board expected to approve and ratify the agreement on Dec. 20.
Entry into the second phase will remove a major obstacle to attract financing through a partnering process begun early this year and allow Sonde the necessary flexibility to fully exploit the potential of the Joint Oil block. Sonde will announce the final terms of the agreement once ratified.
Meanwhile, Sonde has reached a tentative agreement on unitization principles for Zarat field with PA Resources AB, Stockholm, the Zarat license holder, to the south of the Joint Oil block. The unit plan of development is on track for submission to Tunisian authorities for approval by the end of the second quarter of 2013.
Sonde and PA Resources are conducting a detailed reservoir technical evaluation. Preliminary results indicate that gas recycling is a viable production option that will allow the production of oil and condensate in advance of gas blowdown.
Sonde said the Gulf of Gabes consortium meets regularly and has retained technical consultants to evaluate alternatives to the treatment and storage of the inert and acid gases. As operator of the Joint Oil block, Sonde and Joint Oil are active participants in this initiative. The consultants expect the various studies to take 12 months to identify alternatives for carbon dioxide sequestration.
UK
Sterling Resources Ltd., Calgary, has spudded the fourth well at Breagh field in the UK North Sea after test results from the first three wells fell within the range of expected outcomes from the reservoir simulation model.
When normalized to reflect the expected sales level of wellhead pressure, the current three-well capacity is estimated at 88 MMscfd, in line with the field development program general assumption, Sterling said. Production capacities are 58 MMscfd for the A3 well, 16 MMscfd for A1, and 18 MMscfd for A2.
Five wells are expected to be available for production in early May 2013 for combined delivery of 150 MMscfd.
Texas
Telesis Operating Co. Inc., Fort Worth, has extended Upper Pennsylvanian McKavitt (Canyon) sandstone oil production in Camar field in Schleicher County, Tex., with completion of the Thornburg 27-6 well.
The well is the first of a multiwall program that targets multiple conventional Permian basin reservoirs, said Junex USA LLC, Quebec City, Que., which will earn a 25% leasehold working interest by paying its 25% share of acreage acquisition costs and 33% of the first two wells to casing point.
The well went to 4,507 ft and is averaging 32 b/d of oil. The well has produced as much as 71 b/d, and cumulative recovery on production tests is 1,000 bbl of oil, Junex said.
The well is Junex's first participation in the US, where the company and its partners have acquired 2,219 gross acres. Telesis, an operator since 1980, owns and operates 165 oil and gas wells in West Texas.
Junex said, "Notwithstanding the Quebec government-ordained slow-down of operations on our prospective Utica shale assets, Quebec remains an important focus for our company such as is clearly shown by this summer's activities. These activities included the drilling of our successful Junex Galt-4 well on the Gaspe Peninsula and the completion of a 224 line-km 2D seismic survey on our prospective Anticosti Island Macasty shale oil assets."
Wyoming
The US Bureau of Land Management's Rawlins, Wyo., field office is seeking public comments on its environmental analysis of a proposed major natural gas development expansion on 1.1 million acres under mixed management in Carbon and Sweetwater counties. BP America Production Co. and 20 other operators would be involved, the field office's Dec. 7 notice said.
It said BLM's draft environmental impact statement evaluates possible impacts from the proposed Continental Divide-Creston gas development project near the existing Continental Divide/Wamsutter II and Creston/Blue Gap gas fields.
The project would develop 8,950 additional natural gas wells, including 100-500 coalbed methane wells, using a combination of vertical and directional drilling during the next 15 years, the notice said. The wells could produce an estimated 12.02 tcf of gas during the project's anticipated 30-40 year life, it indicated.
The land is 59% federally owned, 37% private, and 4% state-owned, BLM said. Planned facilities would include well pads, gas and water collection pipelines, compressor stations, water disposal systems, access roads, and an electricity distribution system, it said.
The CD-C project area was first developed for natural gas in the 1950s, and currently supports more than 4,000 wells, according to BLM. Presently, there are 49,218 acres of surface disturbance, including nearly 8,500 acres of long-term disturbance, in the project area, it said.
Written comments will be accepted until Jan. 21, 2013, the notice said.
