Americas Petrogas Inc., Calgary, said it will spud the La Hoya x-1 exploratory well in early June 2012 with the Jurassic-Cretaceous Vaca Muerta shale as primary objective on the 293,600-acre Totoral block in the Picun Leufu subbasin of the Neuquen basin in Argentina.

Petrolympic Ltd., Toronto, plans to form a joint venture with Energex Petroleum Inc., Windsor, Ont.,  to acquire 50% indirect working interest in Energex’s Michigan pinnacle reef properties. Energex is working towards a public listing in Toronto.

Pemex Exploracion y Produccion has awarded a contract for the Ayatsil-B drilling platform to McDermott International Inc.

CNOOC Ltd. said it has tested the Luda 21-2 oil discovery in southern Liaodong Bay of Bohai Gulf at 608 b/d from the “thickest oil layers found in the exploration of Bohai clastic rocks in recent years.”

HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA, Rio de Janeiro, will sign a final contract in early June under which the Transocean Marianas semisubmersible will drill for the company offshore Namibia starting in late 2012.

SOCO International PLC plans to fly aerogravity and aeromagnetic surveys over part of Block V in eastern Congo (former Zaire) in June 2012.

The UK government received a record-high 224 applications for North Sea oil and gas drilling licenses in its 27th offshore licensing round.

An appraisal well north of the 2010 Maria oil and gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea has confirmed the initial resource estimate and supported the upper end of discovery volumes, said Wintershall Norge AS.

Underground Energy Corp., Santa Barbara, Calif., will attempt to complete the Monterey shale at the Chamberlin 3-2 well on the 7,750-acre Chamberlin lease in its Zaca field extension project in Santa Barbara County, Calif.

Delphi Energy Corp., Calgary, started Montney gas-liquids production on May 13, 2012, its 30 MMcfd compression and dehydration facility at Bigstone East northwest of Edmonton, Alta.

Gallic Energy Ltd., Calgary, temporarily suspended completion operations at its Ossun-2D reentry well on the Ger permit in the Aquitaine basin in southern France.

HRT Oil & Gas drillstem tested subcommercial amounts of 41° gravity oil at the 1-HRT-6-AM well on Block SOL-T-170 in the Solimoes basin in northwestern Brazil.

Bangladesh, mainly a gas-producing country, has discovered indications of an oil pay zone in two Surma basin gas fields.

Iran has claimed to have made a discovery of as much as 10 billion bbl of oil offshore in the Caspian Sea, but few details have been disclosed.