Ghohta discovery
Lundin Petroleum made an oil discovery on the Ghohta prospect in exploration licence PL492 in the Barents Sea. The well, 7120/1-3, 35km northwest of Snøhvit field, found a 75m oil column in Permian carbonates.
Statoil strikes oil
Statoil has made a third oil discovery in the Flemish Pass basin, offshore Newfoundland on the Bay du Nord prospect (EL1112), about 500km northeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
W&T Offshore subsalt
W&T Offshore, Inc. made a subsalt discovery in a deepshelf, target beneath its Ship Shoal 349 Mahogany field. The SS 359 A-14 well is producing from the T-sand (in excess of 17,200ft TVD), at an initial flow back rate of 3,030bo/d and 5.6 Mcf/d of gas with 9,400 psi FTP.
Shell hits pay
Shell found a 36m oilbearing zone at its Yucatan North-1 exploration well in Walker Ridge 95/96/139/140 blocks, US Gulf of Mexico, 280km south of New Orleans, Louisiana. The well was drilled to 9500m TD.
PDVSA, Chevron partners
Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago announced that the Petróleos de Venezuela in partnership with Chevron will concentrate on the Loran-Manatee field (10Tcf reserves), on Venezuela and Trinidad-Tobago’s borders.
QGEP discovery
Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção S.A. (QGEP) filed a Notice of Discovery with ANP for well 1-QG-5ABAS, in block BM-J-2 in the Jequitinhonha Basin off Brazil.
Petrobras strikes oil
Petrobras found oil in well 3-SPS-101 in the Carioca Discovery Evaluation Plan area, block BM-S-9, Santos Basin pre-salt. The well, Iguaçu Mirim, is located 303km off São Paulo state in 2158m water depth.
Svale North oil
Statoil, with partners Petoro AS and Eni Norge in PL128, made an oil discovery at well 6608/10-15, Svale North prospect, Norwegian Sea, 9km northeast of Norne field. The well was drilled by the Songa Trym semisubmersible.
Tolmount gas
E.ON made a gas discovery in block 42/28d in UK’s southern North Sea. The Tolmount discovery, 40km off East Yorkshire, encountered a 200ft gas column in the Leman sandstone and test flowed at a maximum stable rate of 50MMcf/d. E.ON said reserves are up to 16Bcm.
Statoil oil discovery
Exploration well 16/2-18S, located on Statoil-operated PL265 in the North Sea, was drilled west of Johan Sverdrup discovery, about 9km west of well 16/2-6 and 3 km west of appraisal well 16/2-14. A 15m oil zone was proven. The well was drilled to 1,948m TD below mean sea level.
Croatian survey
Spectrum will acquire 2D seismic off Croatia ahead of the country’s latest licensing round, using Seabird Exploration to gather about 12,000km of long-offset seismic data. Acquisition will complete in 4Q 2013.
Tamar drilling
Drilling on the South West Tamar prospect, off Israel, is due to start late September. A budget of US$122 million has been approved, excluding production tests. The best estimate of the undiscovered resources is 684Bcf at a 90% probability of success.
Egyptian gas
BP announced a deepwater gas discovery in the East Nile Delta off Egypt. Gas and condensate were found in 38m net of Oligocene sands. The well, Salamat, is 75km north of Damietta and was drilled in 649m water depth, using the Maersk Discoverer semisubmersible.
Lukoil spuds well
Lukoil is drilling the Savannah prospect on Block SL- 5-11, using the Eirik Raude semisubmersible, in 2000m water depth. off Sierra Leone. Block SL-5-11 covers 4022sq km in Atlantic Ocean. Lukoil holds 49%, Oranto (Nigeria) has 30%, and PanAtlantic has 21%.
Gabon discovery
Total found gas and condensate at its Diaman-1B well off Gabon. The well, in the Diaba block, was drilled to 5585m TD, finding 50-55m of net hydrocarbons in presalt formations. The well, is in 1729m of water, more than 100km off the coast. P HRT duster HRT Participações em Petróleo S.A. announced that the Moosehead-1 well, is a dry hole. The Moosehead prospect is in PEL-24, in the Orange basin, off Namibia. The well encountered about 100m of carbonates. Wet gas shows were encountered.
FAR Ltd., Ophir JV
FAR Ltd. completed negotiations on joint venture agreements with Ophir Energy PLC on offshore Kenya exploration permit Block L9. Block L9 is a large permit in the heart of the Lamu basin. A series of 2D and 3D seismic surveys have identified several oil and gas prospects and leads with prospective resource volumes in excess of 300 Mmb/o (unrisked best estimate, 100% basis).
Eni discovery
Eni has made a discovery at Agulha exploration prospect, in Area 4, off Mozambique, opening a new exploration play in the southern part of Area 4. Preliminary estimates show that the structure could contain 5 to 7Tcf of gas in place. The well was drilled in 2,492m of water and reached 6,203m TD.
Tanzania appraisal
BG Group’s completed appraisal drilling of the Pweza-2 well in Block 4, 2km south of the Pweza-1 discovery, using the DeepSea Metro 1 drillship. This well confirms a 1.7Tcf gross recoverable resource estimate for the Pweza field.
Romanian drilling
Petroceltic International launched a drilling campaign in the Romanian Black Sea. The campaign started with the Cobalcescu South well using the GSP Prometeu jackup. The well is about 170km northeast of Constanta, in the southwest corner of Block EX-28 in 90m water depth. The planned total depth for the well is 3100m.
Kashagan produces
The North Caspian Operating Co., on behalf of the North Caspian Sea PSA consortium, said the first well was opened and the initial volumes of oil are being produced from the Kashagan field. The first phase of production is from eight wells. Production will be progressively ramped up to the design capacity from 180,000b/d in the first stage, and up to 370,000b/d in the second stage.
Russia offers blocks
The Russian Federation’s Ministry of Natural Resources offered nineteen new blocks for exploration and production in August, including the Amur-Limanskiy block and Vostochno-Pribrezhnyy blocks in the Sea of Okhotsk. The blocks will be offered for 25 years of exploration and production.
Rosneft seismic Rosneft began seismic acquisition over license blocks Lisyansky, Kashevarovsky, and Magadan-1 in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia. The company is gathering 2D seismic along with a gravity and magnetic survey, using the Academik Fersman seismic vessel. The program will cover 10,000km: 5300km on the Lisyansky block, 2000km on the Kashevarovsky block, and 2700km on Magadan-1.
Deepwater gas
Reliance Industries and BP have made a second deepwater gas condensate discovery in the Cauvery basin off India. The discovery was made in well CYIIID5-S1 on Block CY-DWN-2001/2, in 1743m water depth, 62km off the coast. Y ONGC discovery India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. announced a discovery in block KG-OSN- 2004/1, about 21km south of Narasapur, on India’s east coast.
Exploratory well KGOSN041NANL-2 flowed gas at 66,601cu m/d through 1/4in. choke. This is the fourth discovery in the block, after Chandrika South, Alankari, and Saveri.
Petronas’ FLNG
The Kanowit FLNG facility is under construction at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in Okpo, South Korea. The unit is for the Kanowit gas field off Sarawak, Malaysia. The FLNG will be 300m long, 60m wide, and will be moored 180km (112mi.) offshore Bintulu.
It is designed to produce 1.2 million tonne/yr of LNG, boosting Malaysia’s total LNG production capacity from 25.7-26.9 million tonne/yr.
Salamander hits oil
Salamander Energy encountered oil at its G4/50-5 exploration well in the Surin prospect in the central portion of the Western sub-basin, Block G4/50, in the Gulf of Thailand. Oil was discovered in Miocene fluvial sandstones in the N40 zone from 1525- 1533m TVDSS. Oil samples indicate 31° API oil.The well was drilled using the Atwood Mako jackup.
Otto drilling
Otto Energy Ltd. is drilling two horizontal wells in the second phase of development at Galoc field in SC14C in 290m of water off the Philippines. The wells are being batch drilled in 311 m of water. After drilling, the DOF-operated Skandia Hercules construction vessel will install subsea equipment and hook-up both wells to the FPSO Rubicon Intrepid.
Eni Australia plans
Eni’s Australian division, announced that the company plans to spend up to US$230 million drilling in the Timor Sea over the next 18 months. Operations will take place in the Evans Shoal area, the Blackwood area, the Kitan area, in deepwater Timor-Leste, in the Vesta-Swan area, and the Blacktip field.
Subscribe
