Tracy Dulle • Houston
Canada
Husky Energy plans to expand its development and exploration drilling activities offshore Canada.
Husky and Petro-Canada have reached a rig sharing agreement with StatoilHydro to bring theHenry Goodrich semisubmersible to Newfoundland and Labrador. The rig is expected to be in the area by summer of 2008, for 24 to 30 months. Husky has extensive land holdings and drillable prospects in the region.
Husky will use theHenry Goodrich and the GSF Grand Banks to drill infill producers and injectors to enhance production at the existing White Rose oil pool, and progress the White Rose Satellite developments including North Amethyst and West White Rose. The company hopes to bring its White Rose satellite fields’ onstream in late 2009 or early 2010.
Husky has also reached an agreement with StatoilHydro to participate in the Mizzen exploration well on exploration license EL 1049 in the Flemish Pass basin. Under the agreement, Husky will have a 35% working interest in the license. The Mizzen well is expected to be drilled with theHenry Goodrich later this year.
The rig is also scheduled to drill a production and a water injection well in the Terra Nova oil field in late 2008 or early 2009, to supplement production and increase oil recovery. Husky holds a 12.51% interest in the field.
Latin America
The FPSOPetrojarl Cidade de Rio das Ostras has received first oil from Petrobras’ Siri field offshore Brazil.
The FPSO has a total crude oil storage capacity of approximately 214,000 bbls and is capable of producing 15,000 b/d of stabilized crude oil.
The FPSO is manned and operated by Teekay Petrojarl. The contract is for a two-year period with future options for Petrobras to extend the contract.
North Sea/Europe
Venture Production has brought a second production well in the Chiswick gas field onstream using theNoble Kolskya jackup.
Chiswick gas field, located in UKCS blocks 49/4A and 49/4B, is now home to a second production well.
Overall production from the Chiswick field is currently over 70 MMcf/d, although this rate is restricted by the liquid-handling capability on the production facility while the Gamma well produces back the remaining fracture fluids. As the total liquid level reduces, the production rate is expected to increase to between 80 and 90 MMcf/d.
Drilling of the Chiswick Gamma marks successful completion of the Chiswick field’s first phase of development. Work is ongoing to prepare for up to three further wells targeting incremental reserves in the Gamma fault block and the undrilled Beta fault block.
EnCore Oil has begun drilling operations on the Cobra appraisal well on Southern North Sea block 48/2c.
The main objective of the 48/2c-5 well will be to establish whether the reservoir is capable of flowing at commercial rates. The well is being drilled updip from the 48/2-1 well, drilled in 1984, which flowed at 2.7 MMcf/d from a Rotliegendes Sandstone reservoir. It is interpreted that the reservoir was damaged during the drilling of the 48/2-1 well and that reservoir performance could be improved by the use of modern drilling and completion techniques.
The EnCore-operated well is being drilled by the jackup rigENSCO 80 and will be managed by Applied Drilling Technology International (ADTI).
Africa
Production has started on the Candax Energy-operated El Biban field, from well EBB-4, offshore Tunisia.
Oil production rates have so far been variable due to onshore plant commissioning and offshore tie-in delays due to bad weather, both of which have necessitated several shutdowns. The peak daily production rate thus far is approximately 1,400 b/d of oil. The operator expects the oil production level to rise considerably over the coming weeks as production from EBB-4 is optimized and the EBB-3 well is tied in and brought on stream.
The second production well in the El Bibane re-development project, EBB-3, was also completed and theWest Titania drilling rig’s demobilization has begun. The installation of the EBB-3 platform and pipeline hook-ups with the other wells is ongoing. The onshore SEEB gas power station is also being commissioned and will start power generation operations once gas production from El Bibane has been stabilized in April 2008.
The gas injection well EBB-5 was tested in the beginning of March and flowed gas and condensate to the onshore central processing facility to clean up the well and enable the onshore plant commissioning to be initiated.
Aminex has drilled the Kiliwani North -1 (KN-1) well, offshore Tanzania in the Nyuni/East Songo-Songo license area.
KN-1 has intersected a gas column in Lower Cretaceous sandstones, the same reservoir that produces gas commercially in the neighboring Songo-Songo gas field. The vertical well was drilled to a depth of 2,030 m (6,687 ft). KN-1 will be completed as a gas production well pending hook-up for production. A test will be conducted to determine flow capacity and reservoir properties.
According to the company, further appraisal drilling will be required to define the extent of this discovery. Preliminary evaluation indicates a gas-water contact approximately 30 m (98 ft) deeper than at Songo-Songo. This deeper gas/water contact indicates that the KN-1 discovery may be a separate structure to Songo-Songo and enhances the prospectivity of the remaining leads and prospects within the Nyuni license, says Aminex.
KN-1 also encountered minor oil shows in the Neocomian reservoir section, as well as confirming the presence of potential reservoirs in the Tertiary section at an earlier stage in the well.
Caspian Sea
Lundin Petroleum has started mobilization and installation of the marine drilling complex that will drill the Morskaya-1 exploration well in the Lagansky block, northern Caspian Sea.
Drilling will begin on the well after final approval of the installed and commissioned installation. A drilling permit was granted in February 2008, allowing drilling operations to begin after May 15.
The gross unrisked prospective resources for Morskaya prospect within the Lagansky block are estimated at 640 MMboe.
Middle East
Stratic Energy has begun gas production from its Ayazli gas field in the Black Sea offshore Turkey.
Ayazli is the third gas field to start production under Phase 1 of the South Akcakoca sub basin development. The Akkaya and East Ayazli gas fields started production last year. Initial flow rates from Ayazli support operator estimates that production from the field will average over 10 MMcf/d of natural gas.
Operator TPAO has also started well intervention operations to add further perforations on the East Ayazli-2 well, in order to increase production from the field.
Asia
ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc. and the Malaysian national oil company, Petronas, will continue to work together under a new 25-year production-sharing contract.
The contract includes commitments to implement enhanced oil recovery activities and for investments to continue conventional oil development.
ExxonMobil says it has invested more than $15 billion in Malaysia over the past 40 years. The company operates 43 platforms in 17 fields as one of Malaysia’s major suppliers of crude oil and natural gas. Daily operated production is about 150,000 bbl of oil and approximately 1.2 billion cu ft (34 million cu m) of natural gas.
Chevron Corp. and its partners will construct the Platong Gas II natural gas project in the Gulf of Thailand. Total development cost of the field is $3.1 billion with startup scheduled for 1Q 2011.
The Platong Gas II development, located in shallow water, 120 mi (200 km) offshore, is designed to add 420 MMcf/d of natural gas processing capacity. Chevron is operator and holds a 69.8% participating interest, while Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. Ltd. has 27.4% and PTT Exploration and Production Public Co. Ltd. holds 2.8%.
Chevron recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of Energy of Thailand to increase its daily contract quantity of natural gas by 500 MMcf to 1.2 bcf by 2012 from company-operated offshore blocks 10, 11, 12, and 13. Platong Gas II is expected to be the major source of this increase in production. In October 2007, the company received 10-year lease extensions until 2022 for blocks 10 through 13. Chevron has ownership interests in these blocks ranging from 60% to 80%.
Santos announced the final investment decision for the Reindeer Gas Project offshore Western Australia.
The Reindeer gas field was discovered in 1997 in the Carnarvon basin, offshore Western Australia within exploration permit WA-209-P.
First gas is targeted by the end of 2010. Reindeer will be produced via an unmanned, minimum facility wellhead platform in 65 m (213 ft) of water. Gas and liquids will be exported from the platform to a new onshore gas processing plant via a single 105-km (65-mi) pipeline. The processing plant, to be at Devil Creek, will have a capacity of 215 Tj/day (gross) and will deliver sales gas and stabilized condensate. Sales gas will be compressed and exported to the Western Australian domestic market via the Dampier- Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline.
Santos has a 45% interest in the Reindeer Gas Project. The remaining interest is held by operator Apache Northwest Pty Ltd., with 55%.
New Zealand
Prosafe’s FPSOUmuroa has produced 10 MMbbl of oil on the Tui field in the Taranaki basin offshore New Zealand since start up in July 2007.
The FPSOUmuroa has produced 10 MMbbl of oil since July 2007.
In November 2005, Prosafe was awarded a contract by New Zealand Overseas Petroleum Ltd. for the provision of an FPSO for the Tui field. The contract has a fixed term of five years plus five one-year options.
Prosafe is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation, commissioning, and operation of the FPSO, including the topsides processing equipment.
The Kupe Gas Project plans to undertake exploration drilling of the Momoho prospect in the Kupe permit area, 6 km (3.7 mi) south of the Kupe gas field, in the Tasman Sea, offshore New Zealand.
With drilling of the Kupe development wells nearing completion, operator Origin Energy Resources (Kupe) Ltd. and its joint venture partners plan to test the Momoho prospect in May prior to releasing theEnsco 107 drilling rig.
Momoho 1 will target a complex structural high situated between the Kupe South 4 non-commercial gas discovery, 2.5 km (1.6 mi) to the northwest and the Kupe South 5 non-commercial oil discovery, 1.2 km (0.7 mi) to the southeast.
The well is planned to a TD of 3,150 m (10,335 ft) with primary reservoir targets in both the Farewell and Puponga formations. The Farewell formation, the main hydrocarbon bearing zone at the Kupe field, is expected to be intersected at a depth of approximately 2,850 m (9,350 ft).
If Momoho is commercial, a development may be able to connect to the Kupe platform. Participants in the Kupe Gas Project are Origin Energy Resources (Kupe) Ltd., 50%; Genesis Energy, 31%; New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd., 15%; and Mitsui E&P Australia Pty Ltd., 4%.
