France's onshore basins are experiencing a resurgence in permitting activity.
Despite low oil prices, a number of permits have been requested and granted in France recently, many to non-French companies.
Esso REP will start seismic surveys this year or next on its newly granted, 2,420 sq km Aquitaine Maritime permit 50 km offshore in the Aquitaine basin. The permit is adjacent to and extends west and north from Esso's Cap Ferret Ocean permit.
Esso REP's net profits fell last year, mainly because it sold 13 fields that had contributed 21% of its overall production. The 1997 average increase in oil prices only partly compensated for the lower production.
Esso REP's production stabilized in 1997 at 13,360 b/d, compared with 17,820 b/d in 1996.
While Chaunoy field in the Paris basin continued to deplete, Esso REP made a fourth discovery last year on the Lege acreage in the Aquitaine basin subsequent to Courbey (OGJ, June 16, 1997, p. 73). The more recent find, Tamaris, is in Cretaceous sandstone at 2,000 ft. South of Arcachon Bay and east-southeast of Les Arbousiers, it flowed 750-1,070 b/d. It is to start up this year.
Courbey, brought on stream last year, only produces 470 b/d compared with Les Arbousiers' 1,834 b/d and Les Pins' 1,926 b/d. But Esso REP is to develop it further and drill more wildcats on Lege.
The highly deviated well Pegase, drilled on the Cap Ferret Ocean permit, turned out to be dry as it failed to find a trap. Esso Rep said this does not condemn the area.
Elsewhere, Texas Petroleum Investment Co. is about to be granted a 2,285 sq km permit in Aquitaine called Permis de Lasalle, south of Parentis oil field, for 4 years. It will reinterpret seismic and drill a wildcat as soon as possible with an obligatory outlay of $3.7 million.
In the Paris basin, Madison Chart just requested a vast 11,186 sq km permit called Saint-Just-en-Bric east of Chaunoy. It is a 5 year permit, and there could be some competition as there may still be oil traps to be found between the holes already drilled in the area.
North of Villeperdue, Canada's Bow Valley in association with Egdon Resources has requested a 1,200 sq km permit called Chateau Tierry. The companies want to test new ideas on hydrocarbon migration.
East of Paris between Villeperdue and Soudreau, Coparex has requested 841 sq km known as Val-de-Marais.
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