JPT: Regional Update Feb06

Vol. 58 No. 2

February 2006

Regional Update

AFRICA

Total and Royal Dutch Shell began oil production from the Bonga deepwater oil and gas field, 120 km offshore Nigeria. Target production is 225,000 BOPD and 150 MMcf/D of gas. Located in Oil Prospecting License 212, the field lies in water depths of more than 1000 m.
Peak Petroleum Industries Nigeria and Equator Exploration commenced drilling their first well in the OML 122 license area offshore Nigeria. The well is located east of Shell’s Bonga field on OML 118 and southwest of Shell’s EA field on OML 79 in water depths ranging from 40 to 300 m.

Chevron and China Natl. Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) found oil and gas in offshore Block 11/19 in China’s Bohai Bay. Well BZ19-4N-2D encountered 98.5 m of pay zone and tested at 770 BOPD and 0.15 MMcf/D of gas. Additionally, CNOOC achieved initial production from the Caofeidian 11/-3/5 fields in Block 04/36 in Bohai Bay. Using an unmanned facility, the fields are producing at 13,800 BOPD capacity.
Reliance Industries made a second gas discovery in the Krishna-Godavari basin on India’s east coast. The level of gas reserves at site Dhirubhai-23 is not yet known. Reliance discovered 14 Tcf in this basin in 2002.
Daqing Oilfield Co. reported finding a new gas field, Qingshen, approximately 140 km west of Daqing in eastern China. The field, located in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, is hidden beneath lava and is estimated to contain a minimum of 3.5 Bcf.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp. made a third major oil find offshore Vietnam in Block 128 in the Phu Khahn basin off the central coast. The find is estimated to contain 1 billion bbl of oil in place.
Victoria Oil and Gas found gas reserves estimated at 0.5 Tcf on Well 104 at the West Medvezhye gas and condensate project. The project is located in the Yamal Nenetsk region of Russia.

Operator Beach Petroleum, Magellan Petroleum Australia, and Great Artesian Oil and Gas began production testing on the Kiana-1 oil find in PEL 107 in Australia. Production tests are being conducted to evaluate potential of the Patchawarra formation, which on openhole tests flowed 1,100 BOPD and 2.8 MMcf/D of gas.
OMV, Todd Petroleum Mining Co., Horizon Oil Intl., and Cue Taranaki will begin developing the Maari oil field (discovered in 1983) in New Zealand, 80 km off the South Taranaki coast. First oil is planned for 2008.

Operator BP, Eni, and Nexen Petroleum U.K. announced first oil from the Farragon field, 140 miles northeast of Aberdeen. The field, developed as a subsea tieback to the BP-operated Andrew platform, is expected to peak at 18,000 BOPD when a second well comes on stream.
Operator Statoil, Petoro, Hydro, and Eni began oil production from Urd field in the Norne area of the Norwegian Sea. Five oil producers and three water injectors will be drilled on Urd, with gas lift planned for the production wells. Estimated recoverable reserves are 70 million bbl of oil and a small amount of gas.
Operator Lundin Petroleum, Vermilion, and Madison Energy France struck oil on the La Tonnelle-1 exploration well in the Paris basin, onshore France. The well was drilled to 2390 m.
Operator Nexen Petroleum U.K. and Oilexco reported test results on the first Blackhorse appraisal well in Block 15/22 in the U.K. Central North Sea. Restricted by available test equipment, the well flowed at 5,248 BOPD.

Vintage Petroleum announced that the An Nagyah No. 18 well in the Republic of Yemen tested 43°API oil at 1,300 BOPD and 838 Mcf/D of gas. This sixth well was drilled to a measured depth of 6,628 ft.
CalValley Petroleum found oil on a fifth horizontal well in the Hiswah field. The Hiswah-7 well is located approximately 250 m west of the Hiswah-6 well. With a horizontal section of 576 m, the Hiswah-7 well is the longest horizontal well drilled by CalValley in Yemen.
The Iran Oil Ministry information network reported an oil and gas discovery at an onshore field in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, Iran. The find, estimated at 767 million bbl of light, sweet crude, lies in the Mansouri field. An estimated 1.5 Bcf of gas, of which 30 MMcf are recoverable with existing technology, was also found.

McMoran Exploration tested its Long Point discovery on Louisiana State Lease 18090 in Vermilion Parish. The well tested at approximately 41 MMcf/D of gas and 860 B/D of condensate.
Delta Oil and Gas made a gas discovery on its Cache Slough property in Sacramento, California. The 825-acre property is located adjacent to and partially on the Rio Vista gas field.
Petrol Oil and Gas completed drilling the 11th well on its Petrol-Neodesha acreage in southeast Kansas. The company successfully drilled 11 coalbed-methane wells in 2005.
Operator Husky Energy and Petro-Canada achieved first oil from the White Rose field, located in the Jeanne d’Arc basin 350 km east of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The field is expected to reach peak production of 100,000 BOPD in the first half of this year.

Antrim Energy encountered a pay section on the first well in the company’s multiwell drilling program in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. The well is being tested and completed.
Pacific Stratus Energy found gas on the Don Pedro-1 well, located in the Dolma Block in the Upper Magdelena basin of Colombia. Drilled to 3,555 ft, the well intersected all four targeted reservoirs.