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Canadian firms pressing Oman exploration

May 12, 1997

Oman Exploration Area [28439 bytes] Exploration is picking up steam in Oman. A unit of Calgary's Arakis Energy Corp. spudded a wildcat on its Block 15 concession in Oman late last month. Meanwhile, Arakis disclosed participation of two new partners in the well, both also Canadian firms. Calgary-based Odyssey Petroleum Corp. said it paid $1 million to acquire a 10% working interest in Oman's Jebel Aswad Block 15, where operator Conquest Exploration Oman Inc., a unit of Arakis, spudded

Oman Exploration Area [28439 bytes]

Exploration is picking up steam in Oman.

A unit of Calgary's Arakis Energy Corp. spudded a wildcat on its Block 15 concession in Oman late last month.

Meanwhile, Arakis disclosed participation of two new partners in the well, both also Canadian firms.

Calgary-based Odyssey Petroleum Corp. said it paid $1 million to acquire a 10% working interest in Oman's Jebel Aswad Block 15, where operator Conquest Exploration Oman Inc., a unit of Arakis, spudded the 1 Wadi Saylah exploratory well on Apr. 25.

The other new partner is Bow Valley Energy Ltd., Calgary. Details of Bow Valley's farm-in are not disclosed.

Arakis said the new partners will carry a "significant" part of costs to drill the well, enabling them to earn an interest in the concession equal to half their percentage participation in the well.

Block 15 covers 346,000 acres, about 30-50 miles northeast of a number of "world-class supergiant" oil fields, Odyssey said.

These include Fahud, Yibal, Natih, and Lekhwair fields, which have combined total crude output to date of about 22 million bbl. The fields all produce from Cretaceous Natih.

The 1 Wadi Saylah wildcat well will target a new structure in the Natih formation at about 9,400 ft and is expected to reach 11,315 ft TD. It is one of 11 structures recently mapped on the concession, Arakis said: "These new structures are expected to have greater porosity than the Natih carbonate" that flowed 38° gravity crude oil from the 1 Jebel Aswad in 1995. The Wadi Saylah well is about 6 miles northeast of the 1 Jebel Aswad, which is the only other well on the block.

The operator hopes primarily to find light oil from the Natih formation at 9,400 ft and, secondarily, natural gas and condensate from the Shauiba formation at 10,865 ft.

If a commercial find is indicated, initial plans call for an early production scheme and trucking to market, Odyssey said.

As development proceeds, Arakis envisions laying a 70-km pipeline from the block to a 30-in. pipeline that carries crude oil production from nearby Fahud, Yibal, Lekhwair, Daleel, and Safah fields to an oil terminal on the coast near Muscat.