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Morocco Starts The Year With Two Dusters

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · January 27, 2014 · No comments |

Two wells have been plugged and abandoned as unpromising, almost back to back, in Morocco, in the last one month.

Canadian minnow, Longreach Oil and Gas, encountered only gas shows in the wildcat Koba-1, in its operated licence area onshore Essaouira Basin. So did Scottish independent, Cairn Energy in the FD-1 exploration well, drilled in 1,500 m Water Depth, in the Foum Draa block, offshore Morocco.
In either case, it was the company’s first drilling in the country.

Koba 1 drilled to a Total Depth (TD) of 3100 metres. The FD-1 well reached 5,255 metres.

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Egypt: Oilfield Activity Unaffected By Violence

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · August 29, 2013 · 1 comment |

As the Revolution spills blood on Cairo’s streets, Apache Corp., the American independent, is celebrating a surge of discoveries. Dana Gas reports its highest gas production in the country in two years and Kuwait Energy records higher second quarter hydrocarbon production than the 2012 figures.
These are three, non-major, hydrocarbon companies. But their stories suggest that the violence we all see on TV doesn’t affect oilfield activity. This place is not exactly Libya.

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Tangiers Dreams Of Elephants In Tarfaya

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · February 18, 2013 · No comments |

Tangiers Petroleum expects a lot from its proposed well intheTarfayaBlock offshore Morocco. The company saysthat 3D seismic data confirmed a potential 750 million barrels of recoverable oil. The well will not be drilled until mid 2014.
Tangiers reported that it has finished processing the seismic data, which confirmed the Trident prospects and secondary objectives at Assaka and TMA. “These hold ‘best estimate’ prospective resources of 750 million barrels of recoverable oil with a geological chance of success of 23 percent’, Tangiers says.
Under a farm-out agreement between Tangiers and Portuguese major GalpEnergia in December 2012, Tangiers will retain a 25-percent interest in the Tarfaya offshore block (with Galp holding 50 percent and the Moroccan government 25 percent). The $41 million Galp is spending on the transaction includes a reimbursement of $7.5 million to Tangiers for costs already incurred, while Galp will also fund an exploration well to target Trident along with Assaka and TMA. The well is expected to be drilled before mid-2014.

Petroceltic Has Mixed Results In Nile Delta

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · February 18, 2013 · No comments |

Scottish independent Petroceltichas plugged and abandoned its Mesaha-1 exploration well, but got successful in South Damas 2 development probe. Both wells are in Egypt.
Mesaha 1 was abandoned after the firm failed to find hydrocarbon indicators in the hole.
The company says that the well has provided significant new data on the Mesaha basin statigraphy, which will be incorporated in a review of the regional geology prior to the planning of any future work on the block. Mesaha-1, drilled to a total depth of 2,129metreswas finalized at a cost of $10.3 million(gross) Petroceltic holds a 40-percent working interest in the concession.
Petroceltic says that South Damas-2 development well, in the Nile Delta, has been successfully drilled to 1,432metres and completed using the Tanmia-1 rig and is expected to begin production in late February. The well is expected to increase the total South Damas field production rate to more than 20 million cubic feet of gas per day(from 12 million cf/d).

Longreach Completes Seismic in Sidi Moktar

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · February 18, 2013 · No comments |

LONGREACH has completed its 2D seismic programme on the operated Sidi Moktar Licence, onshore Morocco, on time and in budget, it claims.

520 km of high quality seismic data were acquired in 47 lines over the portfolio of prospects and leads in fulfilment of the Licence commitment of 500km, Longreach claims in a release. Priority lines, over Longreach’s drill-ready targets, Koba and Kamar, have been processed by Key Seismic in Calgary using the processing sequence and parameters determined by Longreach during the extensive reprocessing project completed in 2012. The priority lines are being incorporated into the Company’s interpretation to finalise the well locations for the 2013 drilling programme. In addition, the survey was designed to high-grade and promote existing leads to prospect status, the company says.

The survey was conducted by Prospectiuni in compliance with the approved Environmental Impact Assessment to the highest international HSE standards”, Longreach claims.

EniAddsTrickles From Rosa North

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · February 18, 2013 · No comments |

Italian giant Eni will be producing about 2,000 Barrels of Oil Per Day(BOPD), in each of two development wells to be drilled on a new field it just discovered. Eni and its partners encountered a total oil pay of about 80 meters in multiple sandstone reservoirs on the Rosa North prospect, at the depth of over 2,200 meters. But the result of the well tests apparently has shown that technical allowable for any development cannot be more than 2,000BOPD.

Rosa North is the third discovery made on the concession over the last three years and follows Arcadia (2010) and EmryDeep (2012) fields. The concession still holds significant resource potential which is confirmed by the growing production, exploration drilling results as well as recently acquired 3D-seismic data and the new geological model derived from it. Project partners are ENI through its subsidiary IEOC (56%), LUKOIL Overseas (24%) and Mitsui (20%). LUKOIL joined the project in 1995. More than 8.4 million barrels of oil were produced on Meleiha in 2012.

PA Plans An Appraisal In Elyssa

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · December 24, 2012 · No comments |

PA Resources plans to drill an appraisal well on the Elyssa Field in 2013, and an exploration well elsewhere in Tunisia’s offshore Zarat Permit.

The location of the appraisal well will be based on the result of interpretation of a recently reprocessed three dimensional (3D) seismic cube.

PAR has initiated a farm-out process in the Zarat license and is in discussions with various interested parties.

Exoil Drills BAB-1 In Grombalia

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · December 24, 2012 · No comments |

Exxoil Tunisie has spudded the Bou Argoub-1 (BAB-1) exploration well in the South West Belli area of the Grombalia Permit, near the Belli, El Manzah, and Beni Khaled fields.

The BAB-1 well has an expected total depth of 1,350 metres 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.
Following completion of the BAB-1 well, the rig will move south to the Ras Marmour Permit in preparation to drill the Sedouikch commitment exploration well. This well has an expected total depth of 2,350metres and is targeting the Early Cretaceous Lower Meloussi sands, productive in the nearby Robanna and Mazrane Fields.

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Longreach Shoots Ahead of 1st Well in 2013

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · November 22, 2012 · No comments |

Longreach Oil & Gas Limited, the Toronto listed independent, has commenced a 500 km, two dimensional( 2D) seismic programme, ahead of plans to drill its first well on the Sidi Moktar permit onshore Essaouira Basin in Central Morocco in first half of 2013. Longreach holds exploration and near term development licences in the North African country.

The survey will cover the slated drill targets of Koba and Kamar, to further de-risk and optimise the drilling location for these prospects, as well as to help convert a number of other identified leads into drillable prospects.

Prospectiuni SA (“Prospectiuni”), which has extensive seismic acquisition experience in Morocco, has been contracted to deploy its advanced technology Vibroseis cable-less crew to acquire the data. This survey is part of the fulfillment of licence obligations.

Longreach farmed in for a 50% working interest and operatorship of Sidi Moktar acreage in May 2011, from Maghreb Petroleum Exploration

The 2D seismic survey is expected to take two months, with processing being undertaken in parallel with data acquisition. This approach will provide new data in a timely manner for Longreach to confirm its well locations for its 2013 well programme.

In preparation for its 2013 drill campaign, Longreach is also launching international tenders for a rig to drill two wells and to procure the associated long-lead items.

Egypt: Vegas Moves For A New Take Point In Geyad

Section: Oilpatch Sahara · October 5, 2012 · No comments |

Vegas Oil & Gas has moved the rig to the Geyad field, following the successful completion of the Al Ola-3 well. The new location, Geyad-6, is an infill production well, located in the south central part of the structure.
Al Ola, Al Amir SE field (AASE) and Geyad fields are all in Egypt’s North Gemsa Concession, which is 50% operated by Vegas. Al Ola-3 is a water injection well, located downdip of and to support the oil production from the Al Ola-1, Al Ola-2, AASE-12ST and AASE-1X production wells respectively, and is located 870 metres to the south of the Al-Ola-1 well and 1,445 metres south-east of Al-Ola-2 well. The well’s objective was to appraise both the Shagar and Rahmi sands for water injection in that location.
The well was successfully drilled to a total depth of 10,550 ft MD into the Upper Rudeis. The well encountered 18 ft of net reservoir in the Kareem Shagar sand (between 10,164-10,182 ft MD) and 20 ft of net reservoir in the Rahmi sand (between 10,232-10,252 ft MD), with high water saturation present to the base of the reservoir as expected. Formation pressure tests in the Kareem sands of Al Ola-3 indicate fluid communication in this southern extent of the AASE field. The well will be dually completed as a Shagar and Rahmi water injector.