Falkland Islands
Rockhopper Exploration Ltd., Swindon, UK, plans to run 3D seismic surveys the next 2 years on the PL 032 and PL 033 exploration licenses formerly held by a Shell affiliate in the North Falklands basin.
Shell shot 3D and drilled two wells in the 1990s. Neither well was tested, but one had oil and gas shows and the other had live oil shows at the surface.
Rockhopper said play types differ greatly from tranches C and D, where it is in an exploration program with Desire Petroleum PLC, London (OGJ Online, Feb. 25, 2005).
Morocco
The government awarded a 1-year reconnaissance license on the 3.4 million acre Guercif-Beni Znassen block in northeastern Morocco to a combine of TransAtlantic Petroleum Corp. and Stratic Energy Corp., both of Calgary.
The license “represents the opportunity to pursue the extension of an existing producing play into a complex, underexplored basin,” the companies said.
Interests are TransAtlantic, operator, 60%, and Stratic Energy 40%.
The initial year’s work program calls for reprocessing 4,300 line-km of 2D seismic data and acquiring an aeromagnetic-aerogravity survey, to be completed by early 2006 at a cost of $1 million.
Sharjah
Sky Petroleum Inc., Austin, plans to raise $25-28 million to participate in infill drilling in Mubarek oil and gas field off Sharjah in the Persian Gulf starting in 2006.
Sky Petroleum plans to participate with Crescent Petroleum Co. International Ltd.’s Buttes Gas & Oil Co. subsidiary.
The more than 100 million bbl that Mubarek has produced since the 1970s equates to 30% of estimated original oil in place, Sky Petroleum estimated. Infill wells will target the Upper Cretaceous Ilam-Mishrif reservoir at 13,000-14,000 ft.
Field facilities are in place to handle 60,000 b/d of oil, but Mubarek’s production is thought to be only a small fraction of that.
British Columbia
Storm Cat Energy Corp., Calgary, is to begin reactivating coalbed methane wells in July 2005 on a 77,775-acre farmout in the Elk Valley of southeastern BC. Farmor was not disclosed.
Storm Cat committed to spend $2 million the first year and $12 million in three years to earn a 50% working interest in the acreage.
The project is on the Alexander Creek syncline, which has a core of coal-bearing Cretaceous and Jurassic-aged strata. Mist Mountain, the most prospective formation, has as many as 17 seams of high to low-volatile bituminous coals individually as thick as 43 ft down to 3,300 ft in depth. Total coal thickness can exceed 210 ft, the company said.
Original gas in place on the farmout is estimated at 7-9 tcf, consistent with a government estimate.
California
Ivanhoe Energy Inc., Bakersfield, said it will drill wells to evaluate other promising formations near an indicated multipay discovery in Kern County on the north side of Cymric oil field.
A 2,500-ft well on the North Salt Creek prospect 45 miles west of Bakersfield flowed at rates as high as 810 Mcfd of gas in 27 hr with stabilized FTP of 572 psi on a 20/48-in. choke from Lower Pliocene Etchegoin. The reservoir has good porosity and permeability, and the test encountered no reservoir boundaries.
Test, log, and core data show the well to have cut more than 250 ft of oil and gas-bearing formations in the Diatomite and Etchegoin formations, Ivanhoe said.
Ivanhoe is operator with 24% working interest in the 370-acre prospect in the San Joaquin basin.
The apparent discovery is 12 miles south of the Peach prospect at North Antelope Hills field, where Ivanhoe reported a discovery in February 2005. That well, TD 4,590 ft, flowed at the rate of 800 Mcfd of 1,070-Btu gas plus condensate from an undisclosed formation. Ivanhoe had a 50% interest.
