Po Valley wins approval for Selva field development

Po Valley Energy Ltd., Perth, received formal technical environmental approval from the Italian Environment Ministry for the re-development of its Selva gas field onshore northern Italy.

This environmental approval is the penultimate step before a final sign-off on the project by decree from the Environment Minister and the final grant of a production concession issued by the Economic Development Ministry.

During the first phase of re-development, Po Valley intends to install a fully automated gas plant at its already-drilled Selva/Podere Maiar-1 directional well site and build a 1 km pipeline to connect the well with the nearby national Italian gas grid.

Michael Masterman, Po Valley chief executive officer, said that based on dynamic reservoir studies the new development has been designed to produce at a maximum rate of up to 5.3 MMcfd from the C1 and C2 levels in the Upper Pliocene-age reservoir sands of the Porto Garibaldi formation.

Selva has estimated 2P gas reserves of 13.3 bcf. It was originally discovered by ENI and produced a total of 83 bcf over 35 years, ceasing production in 1984.

Po Valley is operator with 63% interest. Partners are United Oil and Gas 20%, and Prospex Oil and Gas 17%.

Masterman also said that the final environmental approval for its 100%-owned Teodorico offshore gas field project is expected within the next 2 months.

With estimated reserves of 36.5 bcf of gas, Teodorico has the largest gas-in-place of all the company’s fields in Italy and is in an advanced stage of assessment, ready for development.

Discovered in 1986 by ENI in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, Teodorico—then named Carola/Irma—lies in water depth of 25 m.

Development plans include the drilling of two wells and installation of an unmanned three-legged platform that will be connected to ENI’s Naomi Pandora production facilities 12 km to the southeast.