IPC said Red Sea Oil Corp. (RSO), through its wholly owned subsidiary International Petroleum Libya Ltd. (IPL), soon will begin a two-well exploration program on Block NC177 in the southwestern Sirte basin (OGJ, July 22, 1996, p. 56).
During June-November 1996, RSO acquired, processed, and interpreted 777 km of new seismic on the block and integrated data with 1,660 km of reprocessed data. IPC identified four prospects on the block: Al Feel, Farah North, Farah East, and Farah South.
IPC owns about 50% of the outstanding shares of RSO and provides commercial and technical support on a continuing basis. Through IPL, RSO holds a 60% interest in Block NC177 and is operator. Sands Petroleum AB holds a 40% interest.
First well, A1-NC177, will be drilled on the Farah East prospect.
It is targeted to about 10,000 ft TD, but principal objective is the Paleocene Beda formation, encountered at about 6,500 ft.
Late last month, a rig was being mobilized, with the initial RSO well expected to spud early this month.
Farah North, East, and South are Beda prospects, while Al Feel is a lower Cretaceous basal sand stratigraphic trap.
Farah trend is located within 25 km of Barrut, Barrut T, and Barrut N field discoveries by Germany's Veba Oel AG in the Ed Nagah subbasin. IPC said En Naga A field to the southwest was also a Veba discovery.
The three Farah prospects are four-way dip structural closures associated with normal faulting similar to that found in Sabah field, a Paleocene carbonate reservoir, along the Zela/Barrut trough and on trend with Beda platform field discoveries to the east, including Samah, Khalifa, Bal Hedan, and Balat, which produce from Cretaceous basal sand reservoirs.
Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
![IPC's Lybian Projects [128885 bytes]](http://images.pennwellnet.com/ogj/images/ogj2/95023001.gif){kind=link}