NORTH AMERICA

Statoil hits oil offshore Newfoundland and Labrador

Statoil encountered light, high-quality oil while drilling the Harpoon prospect (EL 11112) in the Flemish Pass basin approximately 500 km (311 miles) northeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, the company said in a press release. The Harpoon discovery was drilled by the semisubmersible rig West Aquarius in approximately 1,100 m (3,609 ft) of water. The prospect is located about 10 km (6 miles) southeast of Statoil’s Mizzen discovery, which is estimated to hold between 100 MMbbl and 200 MMbbl. Statoil is the operator of Harpoon with a 65% interest and is joined by partner Husky Energy, which holds a 35% interest.

Buccaneer’s Cosmo well strikes oil in Alaska

Buccaneer Energy said in a press release that the Cosmo #1 well has hit oil and condensate in Alaska. The company planned to drill 1,829 m (6,000 ft) total vertical depth but stopped 122 m (400 ft) higher than expected when it encountered oil and condensate shows. Three primary gas zones have been penetrated while drilling. The LWD equipment indicated good resistivity, permeability, and porosity characteristics. The results need to be confirmed with wireline logs and flow testing, the company said in the release. The current well plan is to take cores in the oil formations to augment known reservoir data.

GULF OF MEXICO

First Subsea teams up with LLOG Exploration for Delta House project

First Subsea Ltd. was awarded a contract by LLOG Exploration to supply the subsea mooring connectors for the Delta House semisubmersible floating production system (FPS) in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), according to a press release. The FPS will be located in Mississippi Canyon Block 254 in 1,373 m (4,500 ft) of water and will accommodate production from several nearby fields, including LLOG’s discoveries in Mississippi Canyon blocks 300 and 431. First Subsea is supplying 14 Ballgrab Type III ball-and-taper subsea mooring connectors, with a corroded 1,733-metric-ton minimum breaking load, which will be attached to polyester mooring lines. The Delta House project will include an oil export line, a gas export line, and a number of subsea systems and will have a production handling capacity of 100,000 b/d of oil, 240 MMcf/d, and 40,000 b/d of water, according to the release.

Noble’s Gunflint appraisal well hits hydrocarbon pay

Noble Energy Inc.’s second appraisal well at Gunflint in the GoM encountered 33 m (109 ft) of net pay within the primary reservoir targets, the company said in a press release. Results from drilling, wireline logs, and reservoir data have confirmed an estimated gross resource range of 65 MMboe to 90 MMboe in the primary structure. The Mississippi Canyon 992 #1 well, located 1.6 km (1 mile) west of the original discovery well, was drilled to a total depth of approximately 9,997 m (32,800 ft) in a water depth of 1,859 m (6,100 ft). Noble operates Gunflint with a 31.14% interest, with partners Ecopetrol America Inc. (31.5%), Marathon Oil Co. (18.23%), and Samson Offshore LLC (19.13%).

EUROPE

Norvarg appraisal well hits hydrocarbons

An appraisal well drilled by operator Total on the Norvarg discovery in the Norwegian North Sea has hit hydrocarbons. The 7225/3-2 well in Production License (PL) 535 confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons in the Kobbe formation, license partner Det Norske said in a press release. The partners will now carry out a drillstem test to assess the quality of the Kobbe reservoir and the volume potential in the northeastern part of the Norvarg closure. The well was drilled by Ocean Rig’s Leiv Eiriksson semisubmersible rig in a water depth of 377 m (1,237 ft). Norvarg itself was discovered in mid-2011. Total operates PL 535 with a 40% interest, with Det Norske holding a 10% interest, North Energy holding a 20% interest, Ithaca Petroleum holding a 13% interest, Statoil holding a 10% interest, and Rocksource Exploration holding a 7% interest.

Statoil, Rosneft team up for exploration

Statoil and Rosneft signed agreements that complete the contractual framework of their joint venture to explore offshore frontier areas in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Barents Sea, Statoil said in a press release. Statoil will have an equity share of 33.33%, and Rosneft has the remaining 66.67% interest in each of the operating companies established to explore the offshore licenses. The Kashevarovsky, Lisyansky, and Magadan-1 licenses are in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Sakhalin Island, and the Perseevsky license is in the central Barents Sea. The license requirements include drilling six exploration wells in the period from 2016 to 2021. The companies also have concluded a heads of agreement to explore shale oil opportunities in the Samara region of Russia. The companies will execute a pilot exploration program on the Domanik shale formation at 12 license blocks in the Samara region. Rosneft’s stake in the project will be 51%, while Statoil will hold a 49% interest.

ASIA-PACIFIC

Roc completes drilling program in Beibu Gulf

Roc Oil Co.’s 10-well development drilling program on the WZ 6-12 field in China’s Beibu Gulf has been completed ahead of schedule and within budget, the company said in a press release. The program is designed to both optimize the original field development plan and accelerate production from the 2012 exploration campaign, the company said. Production from the developed fields is approximately 10,000 b/d. The COSL HYSY 931 jackup drilling unit has moved to the WZ 12-8 West field and has commenced drilling the WZ12-8W-A1H well, the first of five development wells. Plateau production from the overall project is expected to be achieved during the second half of 2013, with average daily rates of approximately 15,000 b/d of gross oil. Participating interests in the Beibu Gulf development project are CNOOC Ltd., 51%; Roc Oil Co., 19.6%; Horizon Oil (Beibu) Ltd. and Horizon Oil (Nanhai), 26.95%; and Oil Australia Pty. Ltd., 2.45%.

Exmouth Plateau well hits net gas pay

Chevron Corp. reported that offshore well #1-Elfin hit approximately 40 m (132 ft) of net gas pay in the Exmouth Plateau area of the Carnarvon basin offshore Western Australia. The discovery is in the WA-268-P permit area, and production is from the upper Mungaroo sands. The well was drilled to 3,627 m (11,900 ft) in 1,088 m (3,570 ft) of water. Chevron Australia is the operator of WA-268-P with a 50% interest in partnership with Shell Development Australia and Mobil Australia Resources, each of which holds a 25% interest.

MIDDLE EAST

DNO discovers oil at Tawke wells in Kurdistan

DNO International ASA’s deep Tawke-17 well tested 1,500 b/d of 26°API to 28°API crude oil from an Upper Jurassic reservoir underlying the Tawke field in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the company said in a press release. Separately, the Tawke-20 well, the company’s first horizontal well in the Tawke field, has flowed an average of 8,000 b/d from each of the first four of 10 fractured corridors penetrated by the well. Testing continues on both wells, the company said. DNO holds a 55% interest in and operates the Tawke license. Genel Energy Plc holds a 25% interest; the Kurdistan Regional Government holds the remaining 20% interest.

OMV, ADNOC team up in UAE exploration agreement

OMV signed an upstream exploration agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), OMV said in a press release. Under the agreement, the two companies will jointly explore the onshore region in east Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both partners will acquire seismic data and drill exploration wells to evaluate the potential of the area. If the exploration campaign is successful, ADNOC and OMV intend to jointly develop the potential discoveries in accordance with Abu Dhabi laws, according to the press release. The exploration activity agreement has a duration of four years.

AFRICA

Gulf of Guinea discovery reported by Total

At Cote d’Ivoire’s Gulf of Guinea Block CI-100, Total announced an oil discovery at #1X-Ivoire. The well is in 2,280 m (7,480 ft) of water. It was drilled to 5,044 m (16,549 ft) and hit 28 m (92 ft) of net oil pay in a series of about 100 m (328 ft) of Cretaceous reservoirs. This is the first well drilled on the CI-100 block, and it confirms the extension into Block CI-100 of the petroleum system in the Tano basin. An appraisal program for the reservoirs is planned to identify prospects further east in the block near recent discoveries in Ghana. Block operator Total holds a 60% interest, with copartners being Yam’s Petroleum (25%) and Petroci Holding (15%).

Total launches Egina development in Nigeria

Total Upstream Nigeria Ltd. (TUPNI), operator of the OML 130 block, and its copartners have obtained approval from Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. to award the main engineering, procurement, and construction contracts for the development of the offshore Egina field, Total said in a press release. The field is located in water depths of around 1,600 m (5,249 ft), 200 km (124 miles) offshore Port Harcourt and 20 km (12 miles) southwest of the Akpo field, located on the same license. The field development plan calls for 44 wells connected to an FPSO vessel that is 330 m (1,083 ft) long with a storage capacity of 2.3 MMbbl. First oil is expected by year-end 2017, with output reaching 200,000 b/d at plateau. TUPNI has a 24% interest alongside partners Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., South Atlantic Petroleum, CNOOC Ltd., and Petrobras.

SOUTH AMERICA

Petrominerales Curito-1 flows oil in Colombia

Petrominerales said its Curito-1 discovery well in Colombia’s Central Llanos basin has tested at more than 5,900 b/d of oil. The well, located in the Casanare Este block, was drilled to a target depth of 3,167 m (10,390 ft), according to a company press release. Petrominerales cased the well based on its petrophysical interpretation and performed initial tests using a progressive cavity pump in four intervals. The Ubaque test averaged 69 b/d of 14.5°API oil at an 86% water cut over a 44-hour period, the Gacheta test averaged 93 b/d of 14.3°API oil at a 52% water cut over a 65-hour period, the Mirador test averaged 162 b/d of 29.4°API oil at a 70% water cut over a 27-hour period, and the Carbonera C7 test averaged 593 b/d of 34.3°API oil at an 8% water cut over a 43-hour period. The company plans to evaluate the well over a long-term production test to determine the potential size and additional follow-up locations of the new multizone discovery.

Technip wins Iracema Sul flexibles prize

Technip has won a US $670 million flexible pipe supply contract by Petrobras for the deepwater presalt Iracema Sul field offshore Brazil, Technip said in a press release. Technip will supply flexible pipes for the field (formerly called Cernambi Sul) in the presalt Santos basin in a water depth of up to 2,500 m (8,202 ft). The contract covers the qualification and supply of up to 250 km (155 miles) of flexible pipes for oil production, gas lift, and water and gas injection as well as related equipment for the presalt area to be installed on the FPSO unit Cidade de Mangaratiba. First deliveries are scheduled for the first half of 2014.