Kazakhstan
Condor Petroleum Inc., Calgary, received regulatory approval for a completion and testing program of KN-E-201 oil discovery on the 2,610 sq km Zharkamys territory in the Precaspian basin in Kazakhstan.
The 90-day test program will begin in June 2013. The service rig and surface production equipment are being mobilized.
Condor recently spudded KN-E-202, the first appraisal well of the Kiyaktysai discovery and is approaching the planned intermediate casing depth to be set just above the primary target zones.
Once penetrated, the target zones will be cored before reaching total depth of 2,000 m.
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Oil and Gas agreed to extend the Zharkamys exploration period for a further 2 years until Aug. 27, 2015.
The extension allows Condor to continue its phased exploration strategy to target some of the deeper prospects in the drilling portfolio.
Condor also holds a 66% interest in Marsel Petroleum LLP, which has the exploratory rights to the 18,500 sq km Marsel territory in the Chu Sarysu basin in Kazakhstan.
Kenya
An undisclosed international integrated oil and gas company has signed a letter of intent to take a farmout of part of ERHC Energy Inc.'s in Block 11A onshore Kenya.
Until a definitive agreement is signed and approved by the government, ERHC is advancing the work program and is reviewing bids for an airborne full tensor gravity gradiometry survey on the 2.95 million acre block, which lies on the border with South Sudan to the north and near Uganda's border to the west.
ERHC signed a production sharing contract with the government on Block 11A in July 2012.
Spain
Union Fenosa Gas Exploracion y Produccion SAU, Soc. de Hidrocarburos de Euskadi SA, and Oil & Gas Skills SA have completed a 232 sq km 3D seismic survey in the Rioja area of northern Spain.
Contractor DMT GMBH & Co. KG, Essen, Germany, carried out the survey in challenging topography after obtaining authorization to shoot on 60,000 plots of land, 90% of them privately owned.
Seismic soundings were generated at nearly 10,000 locations between January and March during one of the wettest and snowiest winters of the past decade, DMT said.
