India
Premier Oil PLC, London, said the Lakkhi-1 exploration well in Assam drillstem tested noncommercial gas and condensate from two intervals in the Eocene-Oligocene Barail formation.
Premier will suspend the well to allow possible re-entry. The reservoir appears tight. The well is on the Jaipur Block near Digboi oil and gas field.
Premier is operator with 36% participating interest. Indian Oil Corp. and Hindustan Oil Exploration Co. each have 27%, and Oil India Ltd. has 10%.
Indonesia
Lundin Petroleum AB, Stockholm, spudded the Jati-1 exploration well on the Cipari prospect on the 3,973 sq km Banyumas block in lightly explored south-central Java.
The well is projected to 3,000 m on a large four-way dip closure 35 km northwest of Pertamina’s 348,000 b/d Cilacap refinery, Indonesia’s largest. ConocoPhillips and Star Energy are Lundin Petroleum’s partners in the block.
The objective is oil in reservoirs of Tertiary age. Earlier wells had oil and gas shows, and oil seeps dot the area.
Tunisia
Sheer Energy Inc., Calgary, changed its name to Cygam Energy Inc. and plans to explore in Tunisia and Italy.
Cygam will be 76% owned by 50-year Italian exploration consultant Fabrizio Rigo and his wife, Neli da Silva Rigo.
Private Rigo Oil Co., incorporated in Jersey, Channel Isles, UK, holds a 37.5% working interest in the 989,276-acre Jorf Permit operated by Pioneer Natural Resources Inc., Dallas, onshore south of Gabes.
The companies plan to drill Jorf-1, possibly in 2006, to evaluate a large Triassic TAGI sand prospect (see map, OGJ, Jan. 2, 1995, p. 56).
Venezuela
PetroFalcon Corp., Carpinteria, Calif., and Vinccler Oil & Gas CA, Caracas, said the LV-10 well in La Vela field, which discovered a new shallow oil and gas field on the southern part of the structure, may have added reserves totaling 20 million bbl of oil and 25 bcf of natural gas.
The shallow discovery is in addition to deeper tests made public in August (OGJ, Sept. 19, 2005, Newsletter).
Upper Miocene Socorro perforations at 2,110-2,310 ft flowed 371 b/d of sweet, 35° gravity oil and 2.9 MMcfd of gas with 460 psi flowing tubing pressure. Another 75 ft of potential shallow reservoir remains to be tested, and development drilling is to start in the first quarter of 2006.
Lower Miocene Pedregoso perforations at 6,456-6,718 ft flowed 204 b/d of 37° gravity oil and 300 Mcfd of gas with 90 psi FTP.
Vinccler Oil & Gas is negotiating for a rig to resume development drilling at Cumarebo and La Vela fields in the fourth quarter of 2005. Gas deliveries from Cumarebo to the Petroleos de Venezuela SA Interconexion Centro-Occidenta pipeline are to start in January 2006.
Louisiana
Dune Energy Inc., Houston, plans to acquire certain exclusive exploration and development rights in an agreement between ExxonMobil Corp. and American Natural Energy Corp., Tulsa, Okla., covering 11,000 acres in Bayou Couba field in St. Charles Parish southwest of New Orleans.
Completion is subject to a definitive agreement.
The agreement gives Dune the right to participate in 50% of ANEC’s development rights in the 1,300-acre Delta Securities (DSCI) lease in exchange for $1 million to be paid by Mar. 15, 2006. If either of the first two exploratory wells is successful, Dune will pay $500,000 more.
Dune will have the right to participate in all of ANEC’s exploration rights in the other 9,700 acres with each party paying its share of costs.
Bayou Couba field, discovered by Gulf Oil Corp. in 1942, has 30 potentially productive sands. Preliminary analysis of reprocessed modern 3D seismic data indicates numerous hydrocarbon traps at 4,000-20,000 ft.
Initial drilling is to focus on numerous development prospects with updip proved undeveloped potential, extensional prospects trapped updip from tested show wells, and near-field exploratory prospects with analog production.
The 92ST well, the first development well on the DSCI lease, produced 300 b/d of oil and 280 Mcfd. TD is 6,040 ft. Dune’s working interest is 15.625%. DSCI 51ST, projected to 7,500 ft, has spudded.
Nevada
Makoil, private Las Vegas independent, plans to drill three exploratory wells in Railroad Valley, Nye County, in the fourth quarter of 2005 in a program with FX Energy Inc., Salt Lake City.
The East Inselberg and Radio exploratory wells drilled earlier this year were noncommercial, said FX Energy, which holds 45.4% working interest.
New Mexico
High Plains Petroleum Corp., Boulder, Colo., staked a 3,600-ft exploratory oil test on the Chaco slope of the San Juan basin.
The 1 Saladita State, in 36-18n-5w, McKinley County, is in an area thought prospective in five Cretaceous formations: Menefee, Point Lookout sandstone, Gallup sandstones, Mancos shale, and Dakota sandstone. It is about 25 miles east of Lone Pine (Dakota) oil and gas field.
Wyoming
The E&P unit of Questar Corp., Salt Lake City, plans to drill a fourth 2005 exploratory well on its 143,000 net acre leasehold in the Vermillion Creek area of Sweetwater County.
The Canyon Creek-47, in 13n-101w, is to spud before the end of 2005. It is north of Canyon Creek-41, which reached total depth in Cretaceous Dakota on Aug. 24, 2005, and is to be completed in multiple horizons in the Cretaceous Baxter, Frontier, and Dakota formations.
The first well, Alkali Gulch-1, stabilized at 1.8 MMcfed after more than 80 days on line and is estimated to ultimately recover 4-5 bcfe. The second well, the Hiawatha Deep-5 in Moffat County, Colo., is in completion.
The Canyon Creek-34 and Hiawatha Deep-2 reentries are recompleted in the Baxter, Frontier and Dakota at 10,000-13,500 ft and producing 900 Mcfd/well, both limited by wellbore conditions.
The E&P unit of Questar Corp., Salt Lake City, encountered gas shows in deep Cretaceous on the northern Pinedale anticline and said definitive test results might take a year or more.
It drilled the 15-29 Stewart Point well in Sublette County underbalanced to TD 19,520 ft in Upper Cretaceous Hilliard shale. The well had gas shows in the Cretaceous Rock Springs and Hilliard formations similar to shows encountered in the 1970 El Paso Wagon Wheel-1 well 15 miles south.
The well penetrated interbedded sandstones, coals, siltstones, and shales in the Ericson, Rock Springs, and Hilliard shale formations, Hilliard being equivalent to the Baxter formation in the Vermillion basin.
Questar, Ultra Petroleum Corp., Houston, and Western Gas Resources Inc., Denver, were to run casing to TD and plan to start by mid-September 2005 a frac program and tests of multiple zones in the Hilliard and Rock Springs formations.