China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) will drill an additional three to five wells for Weizhou (WZ) 12-8E Phase 2 in Beibu Gulf Block 22/12 in the South China Sea, according to a Sept. 30 release by partner Horizon Oil Ltd.
The wells will be drilled in about 40 m of water using the Strike rig used in Phase 1. The rig is currently drilling appraisal-infill wells in the WZ6-12 area. The program is expected to be complete in the next 2 weeks with the rig returning to WZ12-8E field in late October.
Strong production from Phase 1 wells, short-term availability of the Strike rig, and demonstrated efficient rig performance—which has been in Block 22/12 for 7 months—led to approval of the second-phase drilling program.
The six WZ12-8E Phase 1 production wells were producing 6,359 b/d of oil (gross) in September, following commissioning of the water processing and disposal system on the WZ12-8E wellhead platform, freeing up pipeline capacity to allow increased rates from the WZ12-8E wells.
Total Block 22/12 Beibu Gulf production on Sept. 25, including WZ12-8E, was 14,486 bo/d gross. The WZ6-12 workover program was completed in August and the rig then proceeded to drill the WZ6-12 M3 appraisal well in early September. M3 did not intersect commercial hydrocarbons and was immediately sidetracked to drill a WZ6-12 M1 infill well—a follow-up to the development well drilled in 2021. The M1 sidetrack intersected oil in at least three reservoirs and will be batch-completed and brought onto production together with the WZ6-12 North infill well.
CNOOC is operator of the block with partners Horizon, Roc Oil, and Majuko Corp.
About the Author
Alex Procyk
Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).