All articles in the Oilpatch Sahara Section:

FIRST CALGARY HAS COMPLETED HAS completed operations on four wells in the past five months, and is drilling on three other locations, in Block 405b in the Berkine Basin. From July to end September 2006 the company worked on GSM I (cased and tested), GSME (cased), LES 4 (drilled and testing) ZER I (cased and tested) and is currently drilling appraisal wells MZLS 2, MZLN 2 and MZLN 3. The high level of activity has been prompted by fact that at the end of 2006 the license will go into the production development stage. By then, whichever part of the acreage that does not host a discovery will revert back to Sonatrach, Algeria’s state hydrocarbon company. The 2006 programme has therefore focused on new untested exploration areas and remote appraisal locations to define the boundaries of discoveries. The company says that ZER 1 tested hydrocarbons at sufficient rates to support the drilling of a second well, ZER 2, that will be located 4.3km to the south-west and that GSM 1 recovered hydrocarbons. The significance of the latter wildcat will be better understood following the testing of GSME I, which was underway at the time of our going to press. The company has now formed the view that a new core area has been identified in the central part of the acreage to the west of MLE field. Two further appraisal wells are planned before the end of 2006, LES 6 and LEC 2. Regarding the MLE field, a number of issues are being advanced and it is hoped the field will be onstream in 2009.