Circle Oil expects to commence a five well drilling campaign later in 2012. Initial results of interpretation of 3D seismic surveys acquired in 2011 over the Sebou (17 sq km) and Lalla Mimouna (135 sq km) permits” are encouraging”, the company says, with the expected initial targets mapped prior to final ranking ahead of the third drilling campaign.
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British Petroleum (BP) Egypt has made new gas discoveries in the North El Burg Offshore Concession, offshore Egypt’s Nile Delta. The Taurt North and Seth South wells, drilled by IEOC on behalf of concession operator BP, are the fourth and fifth discoveries made by BP in the concession, after Satis-1 and Satis-3 Oligocene deep discoveries and Salmon-1 shallow Pleistocene discovery.
The Scarabeo IV rig drilled the two wells in water depths of 110 and 78 metres respectively. The wireline logs, fluid samples and pressure data confirmed the presence of gas in one Pleistocene interval in Taurt North and two Plio-Pleistocene intervals in Seth South. Options to tie both discoveries to nearby existing infrastructure are being studied.
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BP is threatening to take on the trickster god Of Geology, claiming it might dare drill in the Mediterranean offshore Libya before the end of 2013.
The British major called off plans for the venture early 2012 as the Civil war raged in the north African country. But it was a venture that was imbued with exceptional high risk, even in peace time. The truth is, the deepwater Mediterranean, outside of BG’s concession off neighbouring Egypt, has not yielded much. Indeed, Shell has failed to hit a sizeable pool in that same corner of the Mediterranean, offshore Egypt.What BP has in Libyan deepwater is size: it will explore the frontier Sirt basin, described as being equivalent in size to more than ten of its deep-water blocks in Angola.
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Vegas Oil and Gas is drilling an appraisal to the Al Ola-1 discovery/producer in Egypt’s North West Gemsa Concession. Al Ola-3 is also an injector well, targeting the Kareem sands, located to the south of Al Ola-1 and Al Ola-2 wells. The rig was mobilised to the site, following the successful completion of the AASE-12X ST1 well, which is in the south central part of the AASE field, in the same acreage.
Vegas operates the NW Gemsa concession with 50% and its partners include Circle Oil(40%) and Sea Dragon (10%). Gross production from the AASE, Geyad and Al Ola fields is approximately 9,300BOPD(gross).
German independent, E.ON E&P has successfully completed the drilling and testing of the 7th exploration well in block 405a and found oil and gas in the NEY-1 well. The Rhourde Yacoub license is located in the eastern Algerian Sahara, around 250 kilometres south-east of Hassi Messaoud.
“We are very pleased with another successful discovery of oil and gas in Algeria. The results of this well are very encouraging and we will now enter a phase where we will drill several wells over the next two years to evaluate the extension of the discoveries,” says Hubert Mainitz, Managing Director of E.ON E&P Algeria. The Rhourde Yacoub license is operated by E.ON E&P with an equity share of 49%. Sonatrach holds the majority of 51%. The Rhourde Yacoub license is located in the oil and gas-prone Berkine basin and E.ONE&P was awarded this block in a license round in December 2008. Since then the company has drilled seven exploration wells and made several encouraging discoveries in the license area.
Australian operator Cooper Energy has secured a drilling rig for its Hammamet West-3well on the Bargou exploration permit, offshore Tunisia.
The Bargou joint venture, with Cooper as operator signed a letter of intent with Romanian Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) for the use of the jackup rig “GSP Jupiter” to drill thewell which is scheduled to spud in December 2012.
HammametWest-3 is being drilled to further assess the oil resource within the Abiod formation. Cooper intends to drill the well to penetrate the reservoir with a slightly deviated pilot hole. A highly deviated wellbore will then be drilled and tested, to confirmthe oil productivity of the formation.
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Exxoil was preparing to spud Bou Argoub-1 (BAB-1) in the SouthWest Belli area of the Grombalia Permit in Tunisia, as of the time of our going to press in mid August 2012. The prospect is near the Belli, El Manzah and Beni Khaled fields. Exxoil’s programme says ” the drilling of this well will commenceearly in the second half of 2012″.
The BAB-1 well will have an expected TD of 4,429 feet (1,350 meters) and is targeting a fault-bounded structural culmination crossing two vertically stacked fractured carbonate reservoirs, the Eocene Bou Dabbous Formation
and the Late Cretaceous Abiod Formation. These are the main oil-producing formations in the north eastern part of Tunisia.
The Grombalia Permit covers an area of 1,078 square miles (2,792 square kilometers). The partners include Exxoil Tunisie Ltd (65% working interest and operator) and Circle (35%working interest).
ADX Energy Limited has finally plugged and abandoned Sidi Dhaher 1, in the Chorbane license, Tunisia, after a DST exercise in which 90 barrels of mud filtrate and formation water were recovered. The well has now been plugged and abandoned.
It’s not clear whether sheer incompetence or unbridled optimism led to the wasteful testing. ADX’s announcement did not say that logs were interpreted before the DST was carried out. “The test results are in apparent conflict with the previous analysis in the fall of 2011”, the company explains on its website. Still ADX beat its chest in an announcement: “Despite good flow rates from the two reservoir zones and substantial amounts of fluids being produced fromthe upper reservoir zone, the fluids were not observed to contain any quantities of oil”, it says in a release.
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BP is delaying its plans to plunge into the geologically high risk deepwater Meditteranean. The British major is changing the rig,” and will likely drill offshore in 2011.”
BP is due to drill at least five wells in the Gulf of Sirte. The company is changing rigs from one owned by Noble Corp., to a new one, currently being prepared in the Gulf of Mexico, which is owned by-Pride- International Inc.
Results of drilling in deepwater Libya have been mixed, with Hess making modest gas discoveries and ExxonMobil coming out entirely dry. In nearby Egypt, deepwater Mediterranean has favoured BG in NEMED but has proved disappointing for Shell.
MAURTANA
Petronas, the Malaysian state hydrocarbon company, was drilling ahead the Gharabi-1 exploration well off Mauritania with the rig Maersk Deliverer. Gharabi1 is located in Block C6, approximately 22 kilometres southwest of the Cormoran-1 discovery. The planned total depth of the well is around 4,880 metres and the located in a water depth of 1,791 metres. Participating Interests in Block C6 are: Petronas (Operator) 72.58%, Tullow 22 42%; Roc Oil 5.00%
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