Offshore staff
HOUSTON -- BPZ Energy, Inc. has found oil and gas with the CX11-21XD well in the Corvina field offshore northwest Peru. The well tested at a rate of 40 MMcf/d of natural gas and 3,150 b/d of oil.
BPZ carried out four drill stem tests (DSTs) on separate pay zones covering 126 m (413 ft) from the Lower and Upper Zorritos formations. DST #4 tested 40 m (130 ft) of pay in the top portion of the Upper Zorritos at approximately 40 MMcf/d of natural gas with 1,500 psia of well head pressure.
BPZ says the gas is pure methane with no impurities, making it ideal for the proposed 160 MW power plant project, to be located close by in the town of Nueva Esperanza.
DST #3 tested 14 m (45 ft) of oil pay from the middle portion of the Upper Zorritos at the rate of 3,150 b/d. The company says it may go back to this zone to test additional unopened intervals that also appear to contain oil.
DST #2 opened 42 m (138 ft) of potential pay in the bottom section of the Upper Zorritos, but yielded inconclusive results due to mechanical problems during the test. This section too is likely to be re-tested at a later date.
DST #1 tested 30 m (100 ft) of potential pay in the Lower Zorritos. Although it produced
natural gas, it also produced formation water in quantities large enough to consider the zone non-commercial.
BPZ says well testing results indicate the CX11-21XD well bears a resemblance to the 8X-2 well drilled by Tenneco in the Albacora oil field. The company plans to
redevelop the Albacora field in the near future.
"This is a historic event for BPZ Energy," says Manolo Zúñiga, president and CEO of BPZ Energy. "These test results exceeded our expectations for the well in terms of potential daily production of natural gas and crude oil, which on a combined basis approximates 10,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day."
3/8/2007
