MERIDIAN GROUP HIKES E&P ACTIVITY OFF COTE D'IVOIRE
A unit of United Meridian Corp. (UMC), Houston, and partners are stepping up exploration and production projects off Cote d'Ivoire.
The group started oil production from Lion field on Block CI-11 only 13 months after finding the field (see map, Aug. 8,1994, p. 24).
UMC also extended the field more than 1 mile southwest, where its B-1 Lion delineation well logged 133 ft of Albian net pay and found a new gas zone. Site is on a fault block different from that tested by the A-1 Lion wildcat.
UMC unit UMIC Cote d'Ivoire Corp., Block CI-11 operator, plans tests of the B-1 well after drilling to 11,400 ft to test deeper Albian zones.
Meantime, UMC and partners signed a production sharing contract on 525,000 acre Block CI-12, a west offset to Block CI-11. The group has mapped an undisclosed number of prospects based on 2D seismic data and plans a 526 sq km 3D survey in third quarter 1995 and a wildcat drilling program in 1996.
ACTIVITY ROUNDUP
UMC and partners began Lion field production at about 10,000 b/d from three wells: A-1 Lion, formerly 1 Lion; 8-X Lion, a reentry of a wel drilled by a previous operator; and A-2 Lion, the field's first development well.
The group's A-1 Lion wildcat in spring 1994 flowed a combined 23,696 b/d of oil and condensate and 65 MMcfd of gas on tests of 205 ft of net pay in seven Albian zones from 8,671 to 10,407 ft (OGJ, May 9, 1994, p. 88).
Lion field's 8-X well, drilled and suspended by other companies in fourth quarter 1994, flowed 9,500 b/d of oil and 9.5 MMcfd of gas on Albian tests.
UMIC and partners spudded the A-2 delineation last December. That well this year flowed about 5,460 b/d of oil and 4 MMcfd of gas on Albian tests at a bottomhole location about 3,000 ft northwest of A-1.
Lion field production is to jump to 20,000 b/d and 20 MMcfd by yearend as more wells and facilities are brought on line.
Partners plan to install a second platform on Block CI-11 after completing drilling. The group earlier installed platforms on Lion and Panthere field, also on Block CI-11.
Block CI-12 operator UMIC holds 27% interest in the tract, Cote d'Ivoire's state owned Petroci 35%, International Finance Corp. (IFC) 16%, and Global Natural Resources Corp. (GNR) and Pluspetrol SA 11% each.
On Block CI-11, operator UMIC holds 25% interests in Lion and Panthere fields. Partners' interests are Petroci 40% in Lion and 20% in Panthere, IFC 15% and 23%, and GNR and Pluspetrol 10% each and 16% each.
Copyright 1995 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.