Offshore staff
EDINBURGH, UK -- Melrose Resources has upgraded reserves at the Ana and Doina gas discoveries in the Romanian sector of the Black Sea to 345 bcf.
Under the terms of a farm-in agreement last year with Calgary-based Sterling Resources, Melrose is to become operator of the two gas field developments, located in the Pelican XIII and Midia XV offshore blocks.
The company has re-processed and interpreted the close-spaced 2D seismic acquired over the Ana and Doina trend in 2008, and re-analyzed existing well data. An independent audit of the results led to the new reserves estimate, of which 247 bcf is attributed to Ana and 98 bcf to Doina.
Melrose expects sanction for the combined $402-million development from the Romanian authorities by end-2010, leading to first gas in late 2012, with plateau output of 110 MMcf/d for the first three years of production.
Development should be based on two minimum facility platforms connected to an onshore processing plant via a 110-km (68-mi), 20-in. (51-cm) subsea export pipeline.
At the end of next year, Melrose also expects to assume operatorship of the two exploration blocks, both of which hold numerous unexplored prospects and leads. These, the company adds, are in four main exploration plays, but some of them will require further seismic before they can be drilled.
Those sufficiently well defined to merit drilling in the short term include a Pliocene gas prospect called Clara and the Miocene gas prospect Ioana, both in the Midia block. In the Pelican block, Melrose is looking to drill a 45MMbbl Eocene/Lower Cretaceous oil prospect called Eugenia South, which is adjacent to the Olympiskiyi oil discovery.
03/25/2010
