JPT

Vol. 59 No. 7

July 2007

Regional Update

AFRICA

  • Repsol made two oil discoveries in Block 200 in Libya’s Murzuq basin. The Za-NC 200 and H1-NC 200 wells are located 1000 km south of Tripoli and 75 km west of the Sharara field. The Za-NC 200 reached oil at 1087 m, and production reached 334 BOPD. The H1-NC 200 was drilled to 1372 m and produced 589 BOPD.
  • Sonangol and BP reported the Miranda oil discovery in ultradeepwater Block 31, offshore Angola. The well, 11 km south of the Titania discovery, was drilled in a water depth of 2436 m, 375 km northwest of Luanda, and reached a depth of 5116 m. The well was tested at a flow rate of 3,822 BOPD.
  • Artumas Group reported a discovery in the Mnazi Bay concession in Tanzania. Results from the exploration well confirm the discovery of the Msimbati field, containing multiple, stacked sands of the Middle Miocene. The sands are predominantly gas-bearing, with indications of small quantities of oil and condensate.

ASIA

  • Hess produced first gas from the Ujung Pangkah field in East Java at 20 to 25 MMcf/D. Ujung Pangkah also will produce oil and condensate at the rate of 5,000 B/D. Hess owns a 75% stake in Ujung Pangkah, while the remaining 25% belongs to ConocoPhillips.
  • Eni drilled the Tulip exploration well, located 800 m northeast of Kalimantan Island, Indonesia. The Tulip field, in which Eni is operator with a 100% interest, revealed oil and gas deposits. Eni will now appraise the discovery and investigate developing it along with the nearby Aster field.
  • Talisman drilled a sidetrack well into its Hai Su Trang discovery offshore Vietnam. The sidetrack appraisal well was drilled to 3342 m and penetrated the structure approximately 1.1 km to the northeast. The discovery is in Block 15-2/01, 50 miles off the east coast of Vietnam.
  • Cairn Energy drilled a production well at its offshore Sangu field in Bangladesh. The well was drilled to maintain Cairn’s daily gas output of approximately 170 MMcf/D after production from its Well 4 declined. The Sangu field has produced in excess of 400 Bcf of gas since the start of production in 1998.
  • Sinopec discovered oil and gas in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region and in Sichuan province in the southwest. The AD4 well, located in the Tahe oil field in Xinjiang, produced 101.8 tons/day of crude oil after being drilled to 6558 m. The oil field is estimated to have 2.7 billion tons of oil reserves. In addition, the Dayi1 gas well, located in Dayi county in Sichuan province, has produced 260 000 m3/d of natural gas.

AUSTRALIA

  • Arc Energy began drilling operations at the Drakea well, located in the onshore Perth basin Production License L1. Drakea is located approximately 19 km south-southeast of the township of Dongara. The well is being drilled directionally and will intersect the top of the High Cliff sandstone at approximately 2589 m, which is approximately 495 m north-northeast of the surface location.
  • Roc Oil reports that Premium Drilling’s Wilcraft jackup started drilling the Perseverance-1 exploration well in WA-325-P in the Perth basin, 33 km west-northwest of Geraldton and approximately 100 km northwest of the Cliff Head oil field, offshore Western Australia. Perseverance-1 is scheduled to reach 1774 m.

EUROPE

  • Exxon Neftegas completed drilling the Z-11 well, the longest-measured-depth extended-reach well in the world. Located on Sakhalin Island, offshore eastern Russia, Z-11 achieved total measured depth of 37,016 ft. The multiphase Sakhalin-1 Project includes the Chayvo field, which is located 5 to 7 miles offshore. The Z-11 was drilled to the Chayvo reservoir from the Yastreb rig.
  • Ithaca Energy began drilling operations on the Basil prospect on Block 12/21c in the Inner Moray Firth area of the UK continental shelf. Reports evaluated Basil as having net unrisked oil of 4 million bbl and net risked oil of 2.4 million bbl. The Basil prospect is supported by Well 12/21-2, which was drilled outside the Talisman Energy-operated Beatrice oil field boundary.

MIDDLE EAST

  • A consortium led by ONGC Videsh discovered oil and gas offshore Iran, the first major discovery of oil and gas by a group of Indian companies in Iran. Although it is unclear how much gas has been discovered, reports estimate that the offshore block could hold as much as 10 Tcf.
  • Pakistan’s Oil and Gas Development made a gas and condensate discovery from its exploratory Kunnar West Well No. 01A. The well is located 577 m west of Kunnar West Well No. 01. The Kunnar West No. 01A structure was delineated in the Kunnar Mining Lease area, and the well was drilled to a depth of 4065 m. On the basis of openhole logs, two zones of massive sands of the Lower Goru formation were selected for testing.

NORTH AMERICA

  • Bow Valley Energy and its joint-venture partners, Brooks Range Petroleum, Alaska Venture Capital Group, TG World Energy, and Ramshorn Investments, announced the results of a two-well exploration program on the North Slope of Alaska, resulting in one discovery and one dry hole. The North Shore No. 1 well was drilled 10,319 ft through the Ivishak sandstone. The well is approximately 1,100 ft west of the 1974 Mobil Gwyder Bay South No. 1 well. A full testing program of the North Shore No. 1 well will be undertaken during the 2008 winter season. The Sak River No. 1 well was drilled to 11,348 ft, but it did not encounter hydrocarbons.

SOUTH AMERICA

  • Petrobras made a gas discovery off the coast of Espirito Santo state. The company found sandy reservoirs saturated with gas in the 6-ESS-168 exploration well at a depth of 3378 m and a water depth of 763 m. The gas lies north of the Camarupim field in the BM-ES-5 Block, in which Petrobras is operator with a 65% stake. El Paso holds the remaining 35%.