Offshore staff
WOKINGHAM, UK -- Circle Oil has issued tender documents for the acquisition of 5,000 km (3,107 mi) of 2D seismic offshore Oman in block 52.
The project aims to firm up leads identified and mapped from a first phase of 2D seismic acquired by TGS in 2007. Timing of the new survey depends on the outcome of the tender which will confirm the availability of marine acquisition boats.
Circle Oil signed an exploration and production-sharing agreement for block 52 with the Sultanate of Oman in September 2005. The agreement called for acquisition and analysis of 2D seismic data during the first three years, with two optional three-year extensions involving further seismic data acquisition and drilling.
The block covers an area of 90,760 km2 (35,042 sq mi) in water depths from 200-3,500m (656-9,842 ft). Previous licensees acquired 2D seismic, gravity and magnetic data, also drilling three wells.
Circle has identified three play areas:
1. An inboard basin, a southwestern extension of the Masirah Trough, which is the setting for most of the seismic activity and all drilling on the block to date. The basin appears to be at least Tertiary or older. Two of the wells confirmed that the basement highs have been stripped of pre-Jurrasic sediments, while the third well and the seismic suggest the potentially prolific Huqf sequence may be preserved off the highs.
2. A thrusted ophiolite (ocean crust) has been emplaced along part of the shelf, so there is a possibility that large structures, again with the Huqf sequence preserved, may be present beneath the ophiolite
3. A large, deep Tertiary basin in the western half of the block. Current seismic control indicates presence of mini-basins which probably received deep water sediments delivered through submarine canyons. This unexplored basin was created by rifting that opened the Gulf of Aden; the sediment would have been derived from the granitic and Paleozoic rocks exposed along the coasts of Oman and Yemen.
03/22/2010
