By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Apr. 10 -- Harken Energy Corp., Irving, Tex., Tuesday said it diversified its international operations by signing a technical evaluation agreement (TEA) with Perupetro SA, the state oil company, for an area covering 6.8 million acres in northeastern Peru.
Harken has the option to convert the TEA to a 7-year exploration contract, with a 22-year production period. The acreage is on a trend of producing structures extending from the Oriente basin of Ecuador and continuing into Peruvian territory.
Fields discovered in this trend cover a wide range from giant Corrientes field with more than 300 million bbl of oil to Capirona field with 10 million bbl.
The TEA allows Harken to conduct a study that will include the reprocessing of seismic data and evaluation of previous well data. Several wells were drilled in the 1970s on the acreage.
Harken said the reservoir rocks were shown to be high-permeability sandstone with reservoir energy provided by water drive. The acreage also has access to river barge and pipeline services to transport crude oil to market.
Mikel D. Faulkner, Harken's chairman, said, "We look forward to working jointly with Perupetro in the coming months as we seek to identify areas of exploration and production opportunity within this TEA acreage."