Offshore staff
DUBLIN, Ireland – Petroceltic International’s western Black Sea drilling campaign has started with a dry hole offshore Bulgaria.
The jackupGSP Prometeu drilled the Kamchia-1 exploration well to test a prospect in the central part of the Galata concession. It reached a TD of 2,887 ft (880 m), encountering 56 ft (17 m) of carbonate sands with sub-commercial gas saturations.
Petroceltic will use the well data to update the regional geologic model and determine whether to enter a two-year extension of the license later this year.
GSP Prometeu will next relocate to complete the suspended Kaliakra discovery well for gas production, supplementing output from the existing single Kaliakra field development well. It is expected to come onstream in August when subsea tieback operations have been completed.
Thereafter the rig heads north to the Romanian sector to drill two exploration wells on Petroceltic’s Est Cobalcescu block 28 and Muridava block 27 concessions. It will start with Cobalcescu South-1, targeting two Miocene intervals, with combined prospective resources of 404 bcf. Planned TD is around 3,100 m (10,170 ft), and drilling is expected to last roughly two months.
The second well off Romania will be Muridava-1, on trend with the Olimpiskaya and Eugenia discoveries. This has multiple targets in the Eocene, Palaeocene, and Cretaceous formations with combined prospective resources of 169 bcf. It will likely be drilled to around 3,300 m (10,827 ft) TD, and take about two months to drill.
Calgary-based Sterling Resources has updated the exploration program for its Romanian sector concessions this year.
The company plans to acquire seismic over parts of the Midia and Pelican offshore blocks in the second half of 2013; review front-end engineering and design work at the undeveloped Ana and Doina fields; purchase land required for associated onshore pipelines and a gas processing terminal for future development of gas from Midia; complete seismic over part of the Luceafarul block; and drill one exploration well in the offshore Muridava block.
Sterling’s sale process for a farm-down of its interest offshore Romania has been impacted by uncertainty caused by Vitol’s proposed take-over of the company. A preferred bidder withdrew after nearing terms.
Completion of a previously announced sale of part of the Midia block toExxonMobil and OMV Petrom will probably be completed by end-June, with an initial upfront cash payment of $29.25 million.
5/24/2013
