Kazakh government officials have indicated that the Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Co.'s (OKIOC) first well in the Caspian Sea has apparently hit an enormous petroleum accumulation. Parker Drilling Co.'s Rig 257 commenced the Kashagan East 1AE on September 4, 1999. The well, approximately 75 kilometers south of Atyrau, Kazakhstan, was projected to a depth of 5,000 meters. Seismic shot prior to drilling had defined a structure 70 kilometers long with potential for as much as 30 billion barrels. Anticipated reservoir facies were an immense Devonian reef complex and peripheral clastic limestones and marls. In early 1999, OKIOC reported that it had spent $170 million on precommissioning operations, in addition to $300 million spent on seismic acquisition. That seismic was collected over the Kazakh sector of the Caspian, prior to the signing of the production sharing contract for the specific Kashagan blocks. Unconfirmed estimates of the field size range from 8 billion to more than 50 billion barrels of oil. OKIOC consortium members are Agip, British Gas, BP/Statoil, Exxon Mobil, Shell and TotalFina Elf, each with 14.3%; and Mitsui and Phillips Petroleum, with 7.15% apiece. The group continues to tight hole information about the indicated discovery, saying only that results will be released in August. -Peggy Williams 1 Trinidad & Tobago BP Amoco Plc estimates that it has discovered an accumulation containing 2 trillion cu. ft. of gas. The 11,680-ft. Manakin 1, Trinidad's first deepwater discovery, is off the southeast coast in Block 5b in 730 ft. of water. The structure straddles the Trinidad-Venezuela border. The well was the second test in a four-well program for 2000. BP Amoco operates the license and holds a 70% interest; Repsol-YPF holds the remaining 30%. 2 Ecuador Argentinean company Perez Companc SA reports that it has discovered a field that potentially contains 500 million bbl. of oil. The new reserves are reported to lie at depths between 6,100-7,000 ft.; testing of one of four potential pay zones has yielded flows of 5,000 bbl. of oil per day. The find lies on Block 31 in the province of Orellana. Perez Companc owns a 100% interest in the concession. Two additional wells are planned this year. 3 Argentina Chevron Corp. has discovered a new oil field in the Rio Negro Norte Block in Rio Negro Province. The Solitario Sur x-1 was drilled to 8,980 ft. and found several reservoirs in two separate formations. The discovery lies about 6 miles east of Chevron's Loma Negra Field, which it discovered in 1997. That field produces 78,000 bbl. of oil and 40 million cu. ft. of gas per day. Chevron operates the block and holds a 37.5% interest; its other partners are Repsol-YPF SA, Metro Holding and the International Finance Corp. 4 North Sea Conoco Inc. reports a new discovery in the central North Sea, using an exploration approach that can reduce drilling costs by an average of 30%. The Kappa discovery, on blocks 15/29b and 21/4a-North, lies about 16 miles from Britannia Field. Conoco drilled a finder well, designed to confirm the presence of hydrocarbons at a minimum cost. The well encountered a total hydrocarbon column of 150 ft. in the late Paleocene Forties Formation. The finder well was plugged and abandoned; comprehensive testing and evaluation will be conducted during the appraisal stage. Partners in the project are Conoco, the operator, with 80% and 86.3% respectively of blocks 15/29b and 21/4a-North; and Chevron Corp., with 20% and 13.7%, respectively. The companies plan an appraisal well for late 2000 to determine economic viability. 5 Norway Statoil and its partners have discovered a 60-million-bbl. oil accumulation at Block 6608/10 in the Norwegian Sea. The 6608/10 well lies about 10 kilometers northeast of Norne Field. Statoil plans to develop the field with a subsea template tied back to the Norne production ship; first production is slated within two years. Partners in the project are Statoil, with a 40% stake; the state, with 25%; Norsk Hydro, with 13.5%; Agip, with 11.5%; and Enterprise Oil, with 10%. 6 Yemen Tulsa-based Vintage Petroleum Inc. has drilled the first of three exploration wells on the S-1 Damis Block. The An Naeem #1 well was drilled to a total depth of 5,288 ft. to evaluate a possible extension of Halewah Field, which produces about 25,000 bbl. of oil per day from an oil rim underneath a gas cap in the Alif formation. Vintage's well, drilled on the adjacent concession, encountered approximately 100 ft. of net pay in two Alif zones and approximately 40 feet of potential pay in an upper dolomite section. The Alif zones tested at a combined rate of 40 million cu. ft. of gas and 1,020 bbl. of condensate per day, and the dolomite interval tested at rates of 7.7 million cu. ft and 245 bbl. of condensate. While no market for natural gas yet exists in Yemen, Vintage notes that it plans to drill two additional exploratory wells on separate prospects. 7 Azerbaijan Drilling has begun on the offshore Kurdashi Block in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea. Partners in the project are operator Agip SPA, Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Repsol-YPF SA, Tupras Turkiye Petrolleri, and Socar. The 550-square-kilometer concession lies in water depths of 10- to 700 meters, some 50 kilometers offshore. Kurdashi's potential could be as great as 800 million bbl. of oil. 8 India London-based Cairn Energy Plc reports that it has made a significant gas discovery off the coast of the Gujarat state. The company's CB-A-1 well flowed at a stabilized rate of 28.1 million cu. ft. of gas per day. Gas reserves could be in the range of 400 billion cu. ft., says Cairn. 9 Vietnam Conoco, PetroVietnam and Korean National Oil Corp. will shortly begin exploring offshore Block 16-2, 40 kilometers off the southeastern coast. Conoco will operate the exploration phase and will form a joint operating company once development begins. Conoco holds a 40% interest in the 1,114-square-mile area, near Bach Ho Field; the other consortium members each have 30% interests. A 3-D seismic survey will begin by the middle of 2000. During the next 6.5 years, the partners expect to invest $54 million in the project. 10 Indonesia U.K. independent Lasmo Plc reports that it has discovered gas in its Gada and Gula prospects off the coast of East Kalimantan. The 16,182-ft. Gula-1 well was drilled in 6,224 ft. of water and encountered over 260 feet of net gas pay; the 15,223-ft. Gada-2 well was drilled in 6,224 ft. of water and encountered 70 ft. of net gas pay. The company said future drilling would test the deeper section in both structures. 11 Philippines An ongoing drilling program at deepwater Camago-Malampaya Field is boosting reserves significantly, says the Philippine government. A five-well program begun in February by Shell Philippines Exploration BV, Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. and Texaco Inc. has pushed recoverable reserves to between 3.2- to 4 trillion cu. ft., a sizeable jump from the 2.6 trillion estimated at the program's start. The consortium expects to finish its current drilling program early next year. Camago-Malampaya lies 70 kilometers off Palawan island, northwest of Manila. 12 New Zealand Wellington-based Fletcher Challenge Ltd. has started drilling the Pohokura-2 appraisal well offshore the North Island's Taranaki coast. The well, projected to a total depth of 3,800 meters, lies 5 kilometers northwest from the Pohokura-1. The discovery tested 17 million cu. ft. of gas and 1,200 bbl. of condensate per day but had to be abandoned as a production well after suffering mechanical problems. Fletcher Energy has a 33.3% stake in the license block; German firm Preussag AG also holds 22.2%; Shell has 18.3%; and Todd Corp., a private New Zealand firm, has 15%. The partners note that the field could contain as much as 430 billion cu. ft. of gas.