Jaime Kammerzell • Houston
Discovery, sanction, first production
Kerr-McGee Corp. has made a discovery at East Breaks block 599. It estimates that the field has potential resources in the range of 10-20 MMboe. The operator will develop the field as a subsea tieback to its Boomvang production hub, 3 mi south on East Breaks block 643.
Kerr-McGee drilled the East Breaks 599 well to 9,142 ft TMD and encountered more than 135 net ft of high-quality oil pay in several sands. The operator will temporarily abandon the well for completion in early 2006.
“Our deepwater hub-and-spoke strategy for developing core areas continues to add value through satellite successes such as the East Breaks 599 discovery,” says Dave Hager, Kerr-McGee senior vice president responsible for oil and gas exploration and production. “We plan additional satellite exploration in the East Breaks area, with a four-well exploratory program at Northwest Nansen near our Nansen production hub. We expect to spud the first well later this summer and estimate that the combined resource potential for the four fault blocks is in the range of 20-50 MMboe.”
Kerr-McGee operates East Breaks block 599, in 3,220 ft of water, with a 33.34% interest with Amerada Hess Corp. and Marubeni Oil & Gas Inc., each with a 33.33% interest.
Also in the east Breaks area, Pioneer Natural Resources initiated production from a new gas well at its Raptor field in the Falcon Corridor. The new Raptor well tested at approximately 30 MMcf/d. System pressure will limit the incremental production impact, but the new Raptor well will extend the productive life of the Falcon Corridor system and generate a return on investment in excess of 100%.
The company holds a 100% working interest and operates the three fields, which are tied into the Falcon facilities.
Spinnaker Exploration Co. has also made a discovery. The company has announced a natural gas discovery at its Q prospect in Mississippi Canyon block 961 in 7,925 ft of water, approximately 100 mi southeast of Venice, Louisiana.
The discovery well found approximately 110 ft of true vertical thickness of pay in a continuous, high quality middle Miocene reservoir at 17,644 ft. The discovery well is being sidetracked to an updip position in the reservoir to test sand continuity. If successful, the operator will case the sidetrack wellbore and use it for production. Spinnaker believes the discovery to be significant to its potential reserves and production.
The field is 12 mi west-southwest of the future platform site anticipated for the Independence Hub project. That production facility is under construction and will be capable of processing 850 MMcf/d. It is anticipated that Q will begin production when Independence Hub starts up in 2007.
Spinnaker owns a 50% working interest in Q and is the operator. Dominion Exploration & Production Inc. owns the remaining 50% working interest in the project.
In other deepwater news, BHP Billiton and its partners have sanctioned the Neptune development. Neptune will have a design capacity to produce up to 50,000 boe/d and 50 MMcf/d in 2008.
The Neptune field is 120 mi from the Louisiana coast covering Atwater blocks 573, 574, 575, 617, and 618 in water depths ranging from 4,200 ft to 6,500 ft. The production facility will be in 4,250 ft of water.
The partners estimate recoverable reserves at the Neptune field from 100-150 Mmboe, and have have selected a standalone, TLP for the development. The proposed facilities, wells, and completions are proven designs that have been successfully implemented in the deepwater GoM.
First oil is expected by the end of 2007 with seven initial subsea wells tied back to the TLP. BHP Billiton will design, procure, fabricate, and operate the wells, subsea systems, flowlines, floating systems, topsides, and risers on behalf of the Neptune joint venture partners. The oil and gas will travel to shore via the existing Caesar and Cleopatra trunk lines.
BHP Billiton holds 35% interest in the field with partners Marathon Oil Corp. 30%, Woodside Energy Inc. 20%, and Maxus Exploration 15%.
Lease sale
The Minerals Management Service has accepted high bids valued at $342,027,467 for 403 tracts offered in Oil and Gas Lease Sale 194 and awarded leases to the successful high bidders.
Lease Sale 194, held March 16, attracted 80 companies submitting 651 bids on 428 tracts totaling $540,254,193. Of the 428 tracts receiving $353,961,798 in high bids, MMS rejected 19 high bids totaling $11,931,635 as insufficient for fair market value. MMS accepted the high bids on 409 tracts for an amount of $342,030,163. One company declined its six awarded leases. This action resulted in the forfeiture of the one-fifth bonus bid deposit for each lease for a total of $674. The remaining four-fifth bonus, not collected, resulted in a total net amount to the MMS of $342,027,467 for 403 tracts in Lease Sale 194.•
Rowan Companies Inc. recentlytowed its Tarzan Class jackup the Bob Keller from the Vicksburg Marine Construction yard in Vicksburg, MS, to Rowan’s yard in Sabine, TX. In Sabine, Rowan will add the jackup’s legs and derrick.
It will christen the Bob Keller on Aug. 27, then the jackup will move to the outer continental shelf to drill a deep well for McMoRan. The one-well assignment should start in September and it is expected to last about seven months.
Rowan designed the Bob Keller with a two million pound hook-load capacity to drill to 40,000 TD in 400 ft of water.
