Area Drilling

Peru

Dart International, affiliate of Dart Energy Corp., Mason, Mich., will drill at least five 10,000 ft wells during 12 months in Block 31C of the Aguaytia gas fields 50 km northwest of Pucallpa.

Work is to start in November under an agreement with Maple Gas Corp. del Peru. The venture will operate as Dart del Peru de Selva.

Dart International also opened a well service operation in Talara, Peru, in joint venture with Condor Oilfield Services SA of Peru, which has offices in Lima, Talara, and Pucallpa.

Qatar

Work was starting on two blocks off Qatar.

Pennzoil was spudding a well on Block 8, and Chevron and Hungary's Magyar Olag es Gazipari were starting 3D seismic surveys over Block 1 (Northwest) oil field, Opecna reported.

Tunisia

Independents have reentered and are horizontally drilling the El Biban 3 vertical well 18 km east of Zarzis near Libyan waters.

Goal is a 1,235 m lateral in Jurassic Zebbag at 3,698 m MD, 2,208 m TVD. The vertical well flowed 4,400 b/d of oil in 1982.

Participants are Ecumed Petroleum Tunisia 73.7% and Aminex Tunisia Ltd. 26.3%. Ecumed is 40% owned by Duraham Petroleum Corp., a subsidiary of Canadian Leader Energy Inc., Calgary.

Northwest Territories

Canada's Northern Oil & Gas Directorate in Ottawa launched a call for nominations of acreage in the Mackenzie Valley to be included in a call for bids scheduled for Nov. 30. The call for nominations expires Nov. 15.

The call includes for the first time 1.1 million hectares of crown lands in the northern K'ahsho Got'ine district of the Sahtu Settlement Region. It also includes large areas south and northeast of Colville Lake (OGJ Feb. 20, 1995, p. 94) and high potential areas under the Mackenzie plain 40 km downstream from Norman Wells.

Kentucky

Devonian New Albany shale gas exploration is spreading to Kentucky from Indiana.

Mercury Exploration Co., Fort Worth, staked two tests in Meade County, Ky., where it has completed two New Albany gas wells, Petroleum Information reported.

The first two tests flowed 8,000 and 10,000 Mcfd of gas from selected New Albany intervals between 500-600 ft to open Flippins Run field. The area is 11/2 miles east of Brandenburg.