JPT: Regional Update

Vol. 58 No. 1

January 2006

Africa

Operator BP, Sonangol, Esso, Statoil, Marathon, and Total announced the Hebe-1 oil find in ultradeepwater Block 31 offshore Angola, the ninth discovery for BP in the block. Located 16 km southwest of the Ceres find, the Hebe-1 well tested at 5,956 BOPD.
Operator Noble Energy, GEPetrol, and Glencore Exploration reported test results on the O-1 well located in 250 ft of water 20 miles east of Bioko Island offshore Equatorial Guinea. The well tested at 24 MMcf/D of gas and 1,225 B/D of condensate.
Melrose Resources discovered gas with the Abu Arida exploration well. Estimated gross reserves in this western area of Egypt’s El Mansoura Concession are 10 to 15 Bcf.
Burren Energy posted positive results from its M’Boundi Congo development program. Test results included Well MBD 1005 at 4,500 BOPD, MBD 1103 at 1,600 BOPD, and MBD 1902 at 3,500 BOPD.
IPR, a Texas independent, tested a commercial oil discovery in the North Ras Qattara Concession in Egypt’s Western Desert. The well encountered 100 ft of pay and tested at 542 BOPD.
Operator Repsol, Natl. Oil Corp., Norsk Hydro, Total, and OMV made a sixth oil discovery in Libya’s Block NC 186. Well J-1, drilled in the Murzuq basin 800 km south of Tripoli, tested at 4,650 BOPD of 40°API oil.

Operator Shell, ConocoPhillips, and Petronas Carigali made a significant discovery with the Ubah-2 exploration well, located in Deepwater Block G offshore northwest Sabah, Malaysia. The discovery and sidetrack appraisal wells were drilled in a water depth of 1430 m.
China Natl. Offshore Corp. encountered 34 m of oil pay in 7 zones on the Luda 27-1 wildcat well. The well is located in northern China’s Bohai Bay.
Husky Energy completed drilling on the Wushi 17-1-1 exploration well on Block 23/15 in Beibu Gulf and encountered hydrocarbons. The company also is drilling an exploration well on the adjacent Block 23/20.
State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp. reported finding reserves of natural-gas hydrate stretching over a large area off Taiwan’s southwest coast. The reserves, estimated at 1.2 Tcf of gas, lie 700 m under the sea surface and 400 m under the seabed. These reserves will remain undeveloped for from 5 to 10 years because technology to produce hydrates has not been sufficiently developed.

Operator Apache and Australian-Canadian Oil Royalties spudded the Fur Seal-1 well in Permit VIC/P54 offshore Australia. The well is expected to be drilled to a depth of 2612 m.
Operator Austral Pacific announced that drilling has begun on the Oru-1 exploration well in PEP 38716 in the onshore Taranaki basin, New Zealand. Reservoir sandstones at a depth of approximately 5,000 ft are the main target.
Stuart Petroleum discovered an oil pool with the Padulla No. 2 exploration well in the southern Cooper basin PEL 113 area. The field is estimated to contain between 850,000 and 3.4 million bbl. This is the sixth discovery by the company in the Cooper basin.

Operator Statoil began exporting gas from the Visund platform in the North Sea. Approximately 70.6 Bcf of gas is expected to be exported per year from the field to 2011. The company also began production from the Kristin field in the Norwegian Sea. Kristin contains estimated recoverable reserves of 1.5 Tcf of gas and 240 million bbl of condensate.
Norsk Hydro commenced drilling the first of eight production wells in the Ormen Lange field, located 120 km northwest of Kristiansund. The wells are being drilled to a depth of 2700 m through two subsea templates.
Talisman Energy discovered oil in Block 13/23b in the U.K. Inner Moray Firth adjacent to the Ross and Blake fields. The well was appraised by a sidetrack that tested at 6,700 BOPD.

Operator OMV, Sinopec, Yemen General Corp., and Yemen Resources Ltd. made a significant oil discovery in Block S2 in Yemen’s Shabwa Province. The Al-Nilam-ST1 well encountered a 430-m oil column that tested at 1,800 BOPD. A secondary target tested at 200 BOPD.
Vintage Petroleum tested the An Nagyah #17 well in the Republic of Yemen at 3,250 BOPD and 1.8 MMcf/D of gas. The well is the fifth horizontal well drilled in this field.

McMoRan Exploration logged hydrocarbon pay on the Long Point exploration well on Louisiana State Lease 18090, located onshore in Vermilion Parish. The well was drilled to 19,000 ft and encountered approximately 150 ft of gross pay sand.
Meridian Resource Corp. logged 130 vertical ft of gross pay on the CL&F E-1 well on the Gulf of Mexico Turtle Shell prospect in the Ramos Complex area. One of four sand intervals tested at 4 MMcf/D of gas.
Aspen Exploration made its ninth consecutive gas discovery in the Sacramento Valley gas province of northern California. The Street No. 1-3 well, located in the Dry Slough field in Yolo County, encountered 45 ft of potential gas pay.

Global Energy Development plc reported positive test results on its first exploration well on the Los Hatos Exploration and Production Concession Contract area in Colombia. The Los Hatos 1 well tested at 408 BOPD and 700 Mcf/D of gas from the Mirador formation.
Operator EnCanBrasil and Kerr-McGee encountered 80 ft of net oil pay on the 3-ENC-4-RJS appraisal well in the Chinook field. The discovery, located in the BM-C-7 Block offshore in Brazil’s Campos basin, tested at rates between 1,400 and 1,800 BOPD.