Oil and gas companies pledged to spend more than C$191 million on work commitments on all eight tracts offered in the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board's latest Call for Bids NS00-1. BP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. made the high bid in the early November offering, proposing a work commitment of C$97.8 million for 458,000-acre Parcel 6. That tract lies east of Sable Island in the Shortland and Haldlmand submarine canyon areas, in 600 to 7,500 feet of water. Kerr-McGee Corp., Oklahoma City, was the winning bidder on parcels 1, 2 and 7. Kerr-McGee bid alone for the 1.7 million acres, in 350 to 10,000 feet of water. The firm committed to spend approximately C$27.2 million on Parcel 1; C$20.6 million on Parcel 2; and C$13.1 million on Parcel 7. The first two tracts lie more than 200 miles southwest of Sable Island, and Parcel 7 is 100 miles northeast near the Laurentian Channel. Canadian junior Richland Minerals Inc. won Parcel 3 for a work commitment of C$2.1 million, and Canadian Superior Energy Inc. took parcels 4 and 5, for bids of C$5.1 million and C$22.5 million, respectively. These shelf blocks, ranging in size between 51,000 acres and 64,000 acres, lie just northwest of Sable Island in less than 300 feet of water. Richland Minerals was also awarded Parcel 8, a deepwater block immediately downdip of Parcel 6. That 691,000-acre tract is in 6,000 to 10,500 feet of water. 1 Canada Chevron Corp. began producing its M-25 appraisal well in the Fort Liard area of the Northwest Territories at the rate of 35 million cu. ft. of gas per day. At the beginning of 2000, the 3,700-meter well had tested at a restricted flow rate of 28 million cu. ft. of gas per day from Devonian Nahanni. Chevron plans to increase the well's output to as much as 75 million cu. ft. per day. The M-25 is the second high-volume producer Chevron has drilled in the area; it is located about 8 kilometers south of the K-29, which is producing about 70 million cu. ft. of gas per day. Chevron operates the M-25 and K-29 and holds a 43.4% stake in each; Purcell Energy Ltd. has 24% and Berkley Petroleum Corp. owns 21%. Among the other partners are Anderson Exploration Ltd., Paramount Resources Ltd. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. 2 Canada Fort Worth-based Quicksilver Resources Inc. has formed a joint venture with PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. of Calgary to explore for and develop coalbed methane reserves on 1 million acres of PanCanadian lands in southern Alberta. Initial work will focus on the Palliser block and will include drilling a series of test wells. Each successful exploratory well will be further developed with a four-well pilot program. 3 Colombia Occidental Petroleum Corp. has started drilling its Gibraltar-1 well in the Norte de Santander province on the Siriri block. The exploratory test, estimated to cost $40 million, is projected to a depth of about 13,800 feet. In separate activity, Houston independent Harken Energy Corp. plans to spud its second exploratory well, the Manantial #1, on the Cambulos Association Contract Block in the Middle Magdalena Valley. The 3,500-ft. Hoyon test lies in the southeast corner of the company's 41,000-acre block. Harken owns a 100% working interest in the well. 4 Argentina Houston-based Noble Affiliates Inc. has taken a 1.2-million-acre exploration permit in the Cuyo Basin of western Argentina, and is currently awaiting government approval for an adjacent 1.1-million-acre permit. The CCyB-17/A permit, called Mendoza Norte, and the CcyB-17/B permit, dubbed Mendoza Sur, are in Mendosa Province. Noble will have 100% interests in both permits. 5 Egypt Calgary-based Centurion Energy International Inc. reports that its El Wastani #2 reentry well, located on the 420,000-acre El Manzala Concession in the Nile Delta region of Egypt, will be tested and completed for production. The well was originally drilled in 1989. In 1998, Centurion's first reentry well in the field, the El Wastani #1, tested at a rate of 12.1 million cu. ft. of gas and 315 bbl. of condensate per day. Centurion has a 100% working interest in the concession. 6 Egypt Royal Dutch/Shell has signed an agreement with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. to develop plans for a $1.7-billion gas-to-liquids plant. At capacity, the proposed plant at West Demiatta will produce 75,000 bbl. of synthetic fuel a day. Gas would be converted to liquids using both Shell's middle distillate synthesis process and a liquified natural gas train. Shell, which currently operates a 12,000-bbl.-per-day GTL plant in Bintulu, Malaysia, is also planning GTL facilities in Trinidad and Tobago, Indonesia and Iran. 7 Chad A consortium comprised of affiliates of Exxon Mobil Corp. , Petronas and Chevron has begun construction on the Chad-Cameroon pipeline and oil project in West Africa. The Exxon Mobil-operated project will develop oil fields in southern Chad and transport the crude by a 650-mile buried pipeline to the coast of Cameroon. At capacity, the $3.5-billion project will produce about 225,000 bbl. of oil per day. Pipeline installation will begin this year, as will the drilling of the first of some 300 wells. 8 South Africa A natural gas discovery has been reported off the western coast of South Africa by Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. The company says that initial tests indicate that its Ibhubezi Prospect, in the Orange River Basin, contains significant hydrocarbons. Forest's first well, the A-K2, was drilled to a total depth of 3,430 ft. on 21,000-square-mile Block 2. The well tested at a rate of 30 million cu. ft. of gas per day from one interval; a second zone was noncommercial. Block 2 is owned 70% by Forest and 30% by Anschutz Overseas Corp. The partners are now drilling a second well, some seven kilometers from the A-K2. 9 Pakistan In two separate deals, U.S. firms have signed for exploration licenses. In the first, Union Texas Petroleum and Occidental Petroleum have jointly taken an onshore license in Sindh Province. The Union Texas-led partnership will spend up to $5 million on exploration in Mehran Block 2467-4. The companies plan to acquire 70 square kilometers of 3-D seismic data and drill four wells. Also, Ocean Energy Inc. has agreed to explore for oil and gas off the Mekran coast of Baluchistan province. The Mekran Central Block 2462-4 agreement calls for the company to acquire 200 square kilometers of 3-D seismic data; Ocean estimates it will spend up to $10 million on the offshore block. 10 China Texaco Inc. has signed production sharing contracts with China United Coal Bed Methane Corp. to explore three blocks covering 6,897 square kilometers. The blocks are located in the Zhungeer region in Inner Mongolia, the Shengfu region in Shaanxi province and the Debao region in Shanxi province, all in northwestern China. Texaco will pay all costs during the exploration period, but once a commercial discovery is made, Texaco and CUCBMC will take 63% and 37% stakes, respectively, in field development. Texaco expects to drill about 16 coalbed methane wells during the exploration period. 11 China PetroChina reports that it has discovered a large gas field in the Yimen area of the Ordos Basin, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The find, north of Changging Field, contains proven and probable reserves of about 7 trillion cu. ft. of gas. Field development will begin this year; daily production levels will likely be greater than 380 million cu. ft. Meanwhile, Sinopec Star Petroleum has made an offshore gas discovery in the East China Sea and the western province of Sichuan. The Tian-Wai-Tian 2 well flowed 25 million cu. ft. of gas and 110 bbl. of condensate per day. Proven gas reserves in Tian-Wai-Tian Field, on the giant Chunxiao structure, are estimated at about 700 billion cu. ft. 12 Vietnam Noble Affiliates Inc. has acquired interests in two offshore blocks encompassing 1.6 million acres in the Nam Con Son Basin. The firm has signed a production sharing contract for offshore Block 12W, near Dai Hung Field. Noble's subsidiary is partnering with U.S. independent Opeco Natural Gas on the project; Noble will operate and hold 78% of the contract and Opeco will hold the remaining interest. Noble has also acquired a 78% interest in Block 12E from Opeco, previously the 100% interest-holder. The partners plan two exploratory wells on their acreage this year. 13 Malaysia Conoco has received government approval to acquire 40% interests from Royal Dutch/ Shell in two exploration and production blocks covering more than 1.5 million acres. Blocks G and J are deepwater tracts that lie near the Baram/Champion deltas of northwest Borneo in 650 to 5,900 ft. of water. Conoco committed to drill at least four wells on the blocks; Shell made one gas discovery and one oil and gas discovery on the acreage.