Northern Ireland
Evergreen Resources Inc., Denver, agreed to exchange nearly 25,000 shares of its restricted stock for a 100% interest in 605,000 acres of prospective tight gas sand properties in the Northwest Carboniferous basin of Northern Ireland.
Sellers are Priority Oil & Gas LLC and S. Morrice & Associates Ltd., both of Denver.
Evergreen will start a $2.5 million work commitment in June, drilling four exploratory wells within 1 year. Evergreen has identified seven drillsites for permitting and other locations for exploratory and delineation drilling.
The locations were determined by using data from previously drilled wells, subsurface and surface mapping, and existing of seismic data.
Poland
FX Energy Inc., Salt Lake City, expected first cash flow this month after gas flow started in February from its 49% interest in the Kleka-11 well.
Flow rate began at 2 MMcfd in February and was to be raised to 4 MMcfd and maintained 2 years, then evaluated. Polish Oil & Gas Co., operator, holds 51%.
The well, near Radlin, is a step-out to 39 bcfd Kleka field.
Thailand
Chevron Corp., San Francisco, refocused its Gulf of Thailand E&P efforts towards recovering more crude oil than natural gas in the wake of restricted Thai gas demand, OGJ Online reported.
The revised strategy sees Chevron gearing toward recovering oil from its existing Block B8/32 and future tracts it plans to obtain in the gulf.
Driving higher production will be new fields like North Jarmjuree, Kung, and Maliwan. Tantawan and Benchamas fields average 34,000 b/d of crude similar to Malaysia's Tapis Light, making Chevron Thailands's largest oil producer.
Chevron hopes to more than double oil production from its gulf fields to more than 70,000 b/d by 2004 (OGJ Online, Mar. 19, 2001).
Ukraine
Carpatsky Petroleum Inc., Houston, is to acquire Lateral Vector Resources Inc., Regina, Sask., by May, joining two companies with Ukrainian upstream assets.
LVR's main asset is its interest in Bugruvativske oil field, which Carpatsky estimated could cost up to $25 million to develop.
Carpatsky is developing Rudovsko-Chervonozavodskoye gas and condensate field and Bitkov-Babchensky oil field in Ukraine. Carpatsky has working interests in eight wells with net production of 4 MMcfd of gas equivalent.
Venezuela
The Energy and Mines Ministry in late March appointed a commission to handle a public tender for private national and foreign investment to develop 11 areas rich in nonassociated gas reserves.
Tender terms were to be decided in April, bids could be submitted through mid-May, and winning bidders were to be disclosed June 28-29, a ministry source said.
The Venezuelan Gas Processors Association said the ministry has a new gas pricing resolution that recognizes production costs and a 15% profit to investors. The 11 areas are:
Norte de Ambrosio (one area) in Zulia State, western Venezuela, covering 527 sq km and containing estimated reserves of 2-6 tcf.
Yucal Placer (two areas) in Guarico State, central Venezuela, covering 900 sq km with proven reserves of 2 tcf to as much as 3 tcf.
Guarico-Cojedes (seven areas) in Guarico, Aragua, and Cojedes states covering 1,200 sq km each with estimated reserves of 2-8 tcf.
Barrancas (one area) covering 1,970 sq km in the western plains of Venezuela across Barinas, Portuguesa, and Trujillo states with reserves of 2-6 tcf.
Gulf of Mexico
Operators plan to start production by yearend from discoveries on Main Pass Block 61and Ewing Bank Block 871.
Pogo Producing Co., Houston, will set a 12-slot jacket in second quarter near where its 100%-owned No. 2 well on Block 61 cut 91 ft of oil pay. TD is 11,424 ft. Another exploratory well will soon test a separate structure 3 miles southwest.
A 20,000 b/d oil production facility is to be installed in November to serve the No. 1 and 2 wells.
Walter Oil & Gas Corp., Pogo, and Continental Land & Fur Co., all of Houston, are to begin output from a subsea production facility after the Ewing Bank 871 No. 4 well cut 195 ft of gross oil column below 10,000 ft. Walter was evaluating a second oil zone below 11,000 ft. Oil from the No. 1, 3, and 4 wells oil is to be piped to a nearby platform.
Michigan
Soaring energy prices have rekindled debate over oil and gas drilling in US waters of the Great Lakes, press reports noted.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has proposed to resume leasing as soon as a few months from now in the lakes, saying production could net $100 million for the state's Natural Resources Trust Fund.
The DNR suspended leasing bottomlands in April 1998. Public controversy erupted the summer before when Newstar Energy USA proposed drilling nine wells. Since then, a study by a state science board determined there is little or no risk to the lakes from drilling.
Before that, a few wells were drilled directionally from shore. Wellbores that never intersected lake waters tapped gas thousands of feet below the lake bottom. This system is feasible only for nearshore deposits.
Debate was also starting in Ohio, where the state geologist figures 1.1 tcf of gas lies under Lake Erie. Canada allows gas production from platforms in Lake Erie.
Environmentalists oppose the plans because of the threat of leaks, spills, and other accidents. The lakes are said to hold 20% of the world's fresh water.
Texas
Gulf Coast
Esenjay Exploration Inc., Houston, was to drill four to eight wells to develop its 2 Pereira Children's Trust discovery in Goliad County.
The well flowed 17.6 MMcfd of gas, natural, on a 22/64 in. choke with 7,002 psi FTP from 70 ft of pay in one of two Middle Wilcox sands. TD is 13,505 ft. Tubing pressure reached 9,565 psi after 3 hr shut-in. The upper sand had 25 ft of net pay. Esenjay planned to commingle.
Sales began Mar. 8 and were to continue at 2 MMcfd until completion of a gas treating facility in 10 weeks.
Esenjay said the discovery was drilled on a faulted anticline that 3D seismic indicates could cover 1,000 acres. It said the geologic structure is the deeper expression of a nongeopressured Upper Wilcox field that has produced 115 bcf from depths shallower than 10,000 ft.
Main working interests are Esenjay 28.5%, Ocean Energy Inc. 30%, and Stephens Production Co. 15%.
Wyoming
The latest deep well at Madden field in the Wind River basin is noncommercial, but it yielded data that could result in addition of 300-600 bcf to the Mississippian Madison carbonate reservoir's reserves.
The well if successful could have added as much as 1 tcf to previously determined reserves of 2.4 tcf, said the operator, Burlington Resources Inc., Houston.
The 6-27 Bighorn in Fremont County went to TD 25,855 ft in 300 days at a cost of $30 million. Four wells average a combined 130 MMcfd from Madison at 24,000-25,000 ft. Their combined capacity is 200 MMcfd, capacity of a treatment plant that is to be expanded to 310 MMcfd by third quarter 2002.