Norway
An ExxonMobil Corp. affiliate came up dry at the deepest hole on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Exploration well 9/4-5, on the Permian age Kogge Prospect, went to TD 5,837 m. It is in 77 m of water on PL 315 about 100 km southwest of Egersund in the southern North Sea.
It employed leading edge drilling technology and new geologic modeling approaches in a high risk, new play area, said the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The well was in rocks of Late Paleozoic age at TD.
The license covers blocks 8/6, 9/2, 9/3, 9/4, 9/5, 9/6 and 10/4, 10/7, 10/8, 10/9, and 11/7, awarded in 2004. Participants are ExxonMobil, Statoil ASA, and Petoro 30% each and RWE-Dea Norge AS 10%.
Arizona
High Plains Petroleum Corp., Boulder, Colo., will drill a confirmation attempt that could establish the Holbrook basin’s first hydrocarbon production.
The new well, on a 13,000-acre anticline, is to go to TD 4,075 ft in 17-12n-26e, Apache County. The Sumatra Energy 1-17 Santa Fe, drilled in 1983, encountered gas in nine Pennsylvanian carbonates, but no gas market was available (OGJ, Oct. 20, 1987, p. 84).
The Holbrook basin has produced helium from Pinta Dome and Navajo Springs fields and carbon dioxide and helium on the St. Johns and Coyote Creek anticlines.
The new well has secondary objectives in Permian. Wells drilled for potash in Permian Supai have encountered shows of oil in porous carbonates like the pay zones in the 1983 discovery well. Porosities in the two dolomites were 16% and 31%.
Colorado
Lexam Explorations Inc., Toronto, said it applied to the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission for drilling permits for two wells on the Baca Project in the San Luis Valley. Each well is to reach TD of 14,000 ft (see map, OGJ, Sept. 1, 1997, p. 78).
The project is also being permitted for a 26 sq km 3D seismic survey that will confirm and define the drilling targets identified from extensive 2D data and help define new targets on the flanks of the Crestone structure and further define gas targets in the Lower Tertiary section of the basin.
