Shell Prospecting & Development Peru BV and partner Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Peru Inc. have discovered what was described as a major new gas field in Peru, near the Camisea gas fields project the partners stepped away from just a few months ago.
The partners on Oct. 29 disclosed the gas field discovery on Block 75, which adjoins the world-class Camisea gas fields on Blocks 88A and 88B in Peru's Ucayali basin.
Operator Shell recently wrapped up drilling on the Pagoreni-1 exploratory well, which is covered by the work commitment under first stage of a 40-year license contract on Block 75, signed in March 1997. Shell drilled it as a directional well with a true measured depth of 3,400 m, bottoming in what it described as a complex geological formation. Other details of the well were not disclosed. Shell said that testing on the well was to begin last week to determine gas productivity and gas liquids content. Shell holds 57.5% of the joint venture and Mobil 42.5%.
Block 75 covers 7,900 sq km bordering Camisea's Blocks 88A and 88B and extending northward. It initially included the Manu National Park, but, at the companies' request, park lands were excluded from block area.
Operations on Block 75 were preceded by an environmental impact study. The companies also consulted indigenous communities before beginning activities and reached an agreement with them on use of the area where the well was drilled.
The Block 75 contract is separate from Shell-Mobil's former partnership in the Camisea fields project, from which they withdrew in July after completing a 26-month appraisal stage but failing to reach agreement with the government on the development project (OGJ, Sept. 7, 1998, p. 39). The Pagoreni discovery is Peru's first apparent major hydrocarbon find since Shell discovered the Camisea fields during 1981-87. Latest estimates by Perupetro SA, the state oil regulatory agency, put Camisea's reserves at 9.9 tcf of gas and 620 million bbl of condensate. Engineering consulting firm DeGolyer & McNaughton also is auditing the gas reserves.
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