The Kurdistan Regional Government has awarded the Qara Dagh block to Chevron Corp.

ConocoPhillips has committed to its $109.5 million farmin to Perth-based New Standard Energy Ltd.’s Goldwyer shale project in the onshore Canning basin of Western Australia.

Tullow Oil PLC has tested sweet, waxy 37° gravity crude from three good quality reservoir sand zones in the Auwerwer formation at the Twiga South-1 oil discovery on Block 13T in northwestern Kenya.

Natural oil flow from the Upper Cretaceous Vivian sandstone far exceeded expectations at the Bretana Norte exploratory well in Peru, and Gran Tierra Energy Inc., Calgary, will drill a horizontal leg in the same formation.

Aerogravity and magnetic surveys conducted in 2012 have confirmed the presence of sedimentary basins on the Kilosa-Kilombero PSA and the possibility of sedimentary basins on the Pangani PSA onshore coastal Tanzania, said Otto Energy Ltd., Perth.

OAO Rosneft Pres. and Chairman Igor Sechin met with oil company executives in China and Japan to discuss establishing partnerships in Russian offshore Arctic projects and possibly future LNG projects.

McMoRan Exploration Co., New Orleans, booked 12.9 billion cubic feet equivalent of net proved reserves as the first reserves to be booked in the South Louisiana ultradeep subsalt trend.

Norwest Energy NL, Perth, reported an encouraging early flow rate of 350 Mscfd of gas from Permian Carynginia shale at its Arrowsmith-2 well on EP413 in the Perth basin of Western Australia.

Reliance Industries Ltd. and BP have told the Indian government they plan to invest $5 billion over 3-5 years to boost production from disappointing deepwater fields on the KG-D6 block off the country’s eastern coast.

Fourteen horizontal wells have been drilled in the Cretaceous Mancos shale in the Piceance basin in northwestern Colorado, said Dejour Energy Inc., Denver.

Reserves attributable to Calvalley Petroleum Inc.’s 50% working interest in Block 9 in Yemen’s Masila basin fell to 12.5 million bbl at the end of 2012 from 14.7 million bbl a year earlier, the Calgary company said.

Longreach Oil & Gas Ltd., London, said it looks forward to drilling its first well within months on the 4,711 sq km Sidi Moktar license in the Essaouira basin onshore central Morocco.