Mosbacher Energy Co. and PanEnergy Corp., both of Houston, and Buenaventura Ingenieros SA, Lima, have signed an exploration and development license with Perupetro SA, the state oil regulatory company, to explore Block 85 in Peru's central jungle.
The block, covering almost 400,000 acres in the Ucaya* basin, borders the Aguaytia gas fields being developed by Aguaytia Energy Peru, a group led by Maple Gas Co., Dallas.
The partners plan to drill a wildcat on Block 85 by yearend at a cost of about $4-4.5 million and to delineate any discovery within 3 years.
The 30-year contract, which extends to 40 years if gas development is involved, has a 6-year exploration stage, divided into four periods, with a minimum work program estimated at a cost of $21 million.
The exploration stage requires reprocessing and reinterpreting 350 km of existing 2D seismic lines and acquiring, processing, and interpreting 100 km of new 2D seismic. It also includes drilling four exploratory wells.
Interests are Buenaventura 55% and Mosbacher and operator PanEnergy 22.5% each. PanEnergy, also a partner in the Aguaytia venture, recently merged with Duke Energy, which in turn holds a contract with Aguaytia Energy to operate the gas processing plant and power transmission line in the Aguaytia development project, which is due to come on stream late next year or early in 1999.
Buenaventura Ingenieros is a subsidiary of Cia. de Minas Buenaventura SA, a major local mining company and a partner with Newmont Mining Co. in Peru's Yanacocha mine, Latin America's biggest gold producer. Buenaventura's chairman Alberto Benavides said that his company, which is venturing into oil exploration for the first time, was attracted by the geology of the area, which has been well explored by other oil companies in the past.
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