The Canadian Maritimes have gained an onshore discovery and a new exploratory venture, reports consulting firm Canadian Discovery Ltd. of Calgary. Onshore in New Brunswick, Halifax-based Corridor Resources Inc. and its partner, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., have made an apparent gas find. The McCully #1, located about 7.5 miles northeast of Sussex, was drilled to a total depth of 8,714 feet. During air drilling of the well, 130 feet of over-pressured gas-bearing sand in the Mississippian Albert formation flowed at the rate of 2.4 million cubic feet of gas per day. During a subsequent production test, the lowest sand flowed for three days at the rate of 750,000 cu. ft. of gas and no water. Corridor estimates that preliminary in-place reserves of the McCully pool are 300 billion cubic feet of gas. The McCully #2, the first well to appraise the discovery, is being directionally drilled from the same surface location as the #1 well to a bottomhole location approximately 1,600 feet to the south-southeast of the initial well. Meanwhile, on Prince Edward Island, Toronto-based Meteor Creek Resources Inc. is drilling a 12,000-foot test on the northeastern tip of the island, targeting the Carboniferous-aged Riverdale Sandstone. Situated on the southwestern flank of the Magdalen Basin, this Bear River prospect lies 40 miles southwest of a 1974 well that tested 5.5 million cubic feet of gas from equivalent-aged strata. 1 Canada After a 24-year hiatus, exploratory drilling has resumed in the Canadian Arctic. Calgary-based firms Petro-Canada Oil & Gas and Anderson Exploration Ltd. are drilling the Kurk M-15 to 8,200 ft. at a cost of up to C$23 million. A custom-built northern rig owned by Akita Drilling Ltd. , also of Calgary, required additional dismantling to cross the thinner-than-expected Mackenzie River ice road, reports Canadian Discovery Ltd. Petro-Canada has a 60% interest in the Kurk test and Anderson holds 40%. Although this will be the only well drilled on the Mackenzie Delta this winter, four more are planned by industry next winter. 2 Canada The Laird area of the Northwest Territories has gained another discovery. Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. reports that the Liard N-01 well, operated by Paramount Resources Ltd. , reached a total depth of 6,365 ft. after penetrating three zones in the Mississippian Mattson formation. On a drillstem test, the three zones flowed at a cumulative rate of 49.7 million cu. ft. of gas per day. Paramount, Forest and Berkley Petroleum Corp. each have a 33.33% interest in the well. Two recompletions and five delineation wells are planned for the current winter drilling season. 3 Canada A northeastern British Columbia exploratory well operated by El Dorado, Ark.-based Murphy Oil Corp. tested gas at the rate of 100 million cu. ft. a day from Devonian-aged reefal dolomites, making it one of the top 10 onshore discoveries in Canadian history. The a-97-H well, located 100 kilometers north of Fort St. John in the Ladyfern area, was drilled to a total depth of 2,790 meters. Murphy owns a 63% working interest in the discovery, and Houston-based Apache Corp. owns the remaining 37%. The partners intend to drill 10 additional 9,000-ft. wells on the play prior to the end of the current drilling season. Meanwhile, Alberta Energy Co. , Calgary, is following up its 60-million-cu.-ft.-per-day strike, located 5 miles to the south, with eight additional wells. 4 Canada Privately owned, Calgary-based Leland Energy Canada Ltd. pinpointed the crest of a Devonian-aged reef at Fenn West in central Alberta utilizing 3-D seismic, reports Canadian Discovery Ltd. The well, located 900 ft. away from a 1962 flank test of the feature, gained 350 ft. of oil column and reportedly produced more than 3,200 bbl. of oil per day. Currently, the discovery and two subsequent wells are producing at a combined rate of just less than 2,500 bbl. of oil per day. Leland has subsequently sold its interest to Calgary-based Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. 5 Norway Conoco Inc. reports that it has made an oil discovery some five miles north of Heidrun Field on Exploration License 095 in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The exploratory well 6507/7-13 was drilled to 8,530 ft. and found oil in the Jurassic section, and a sidetrack was also drilled. An extended evaluation program was carried out. Partners in the license are Conoco, the operator, with a 20% interest; Statoil , with 75%; and Fortum Petroleum AS , with 5%. 6 Norway Statoil has discovered oil and gas on Production License 202 in the Barents Sea's North Cape Basin. The well, drilled to a total depth of 9,265 ft. in 945 ft. of water, tested a structure close to a salt diapir. The company is analyzing the results of its logging and coring program to determine the size of the discovery and whether it will drill appraisal wells. Statoil's partners in the venture are Amerada Hess and Norsk Hydro . The company is now preparing to spud a second Barents Sea wildcat in Production License 110, located approximately 120 kilometers northwest of Hammerfest. The Delta 7121/5-3 well is located in 1,132 ft. of water and projected to a total depth of 7,172 ft., reports E&P Daily. The Delta prospect lies 20 kilometers southeast of Statoil's Snow White gas discovery and 35 kilometers northwest of Agip's Goliath oil find. 7 Equatorial Guinea CMS Oil & Gas Co. , a unit of Dearborn, Mich.-based CMS Energy Corp. , says that its exploratory Estrella-1 offshore well tested at a combined stabilized rate of 6,780 bbl. of condensate and 47.3 million cu. ft. of natural gas per day from two intervals between 6,950 and 7,200 ft. The Estrella-1 was drilled to a depth of 10,324 ft. in approximately 200 ft. of water, 22 miles northwest of Bioko Island. The Alba Field "A" platform lies approximately five miles to the south, and further drilling to determine the ultimate size of the Estrella accumulation is being evaluated. 8 South Africa Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources reports that it has tested significant volumes of oil and natural gas from its first exploratory well on its Boomslang prospect, located on the southern flank of the Bredasdorp Basin in E-P Tract, Block 9, southwest of Mossel Bay. The E-DQ1 was drilled in 450 ft. of water and encountered 128 gross ft. (108 net ft.) of pay in synrift shallow-marine sands consisting of an oil leg under a gas column at a depth of 6,600 ft. A test of a portion of the oil leg interval flowed at rates up to 3,120 bbl. of oil and 2.6 million cu. ft. of gas per day over a 48-hour period. The company also tested the overlying gas column. It flowed at a rate of approximately 24 million cu. ft. of gas and 300 bbl. of condensate per day. Pioneer operates the well and holds a 49% working interest. Soekor E&P Ltd. holds the remaining 51%. 9 Japan Teikoku Oil Co. reports that it has successfully tested an exploratory well in Minami Nagaoka Field in Niigata prefecture. The Iizuka-1 flowed at a daily rate of 142,000 cu. meters of natural gas and 146 kiloliters of crude oil. At Minami Nagaoka, Teikoku currently produces slightly less than 600 million cu. meters of natural gas and 70,000 to 80,000 kiloliters of condensate a year. The company plans to drill several appraisal wells. 10 China PetroChina Co. Ltd. says that it has discovered a massive natural gas field that could be the largest in the country. Sulige Field, located in the Ordos Basin of Inner Mongolia, is estimated to contain original gas-in-place of more than 700 billion cu. meters. Eight wells have been producing gas at an average daily rate of 600,000 cu. meters each. PetroChina has contracted Royal Dutch/Shell to help it study the feasibility of building a new pipeline from Shaanxi province to Beijing. 11 China Phillips Petroleum Co. reports that it has successfully appraised its Peng Lai (PL) 25-6 oil discovery, located three miles east of PL 19-3 Field on Block 11/05. The PL 25-6-2 appraisal well, located in 75 ft. of water about a mile south of the PL 25-6-1 discovery well, reached a total depth of 5,853 ft. and encountered 354 ft. of net pay in the Guantao formation. A drillstem test conducted over a gross interval of 79 ft. flowed 21-degree oil at a stabilized rate of 425 bbl. per day. Phillips notes that it will evaluate development of the satellite field in conjunction with Phase II of its planned PL 19-3 development. In the first half of 2002, the company expects to begin producing 35,000 to 40,000 bbl. of oil per day from Phase I of its PL 19-3 development. Phillips has a 100% working interest in the 2.3 million-acre Block 11/05, and China National Offshore Oil Corp. has the right to acquire up to a 51% interest in any development. CNOOC has elected to take its interest in the PL 19-3 Phase I development. 12 Australia Australian firm Santos Ltd. has made two gas discoveries in the Queensland sector of the Cooper/Eromanga basins. The Challum 19 well, located 22 kilometers west of the Ballera Gas Center, flowed 7.5 million cu. ft. of gas per day from an interval between 2,339-67 meters. The discovery was made in pre-Permian carbonates, a section previously not proven to be prospective. Also, the Raworth 1 well, drilled 55 kilometers east of Ballera, flowed 5.1 million cu. ft. of gas a day from the interval at 2,053-65 meters. Santos operates and holds interests in both wells. Its partners in the Challum venture are Origin Energy , Oil Co. of Australia and Exxon Mobil Corp. , and its partners in Raworth are Origin and Oil Co. of Australia. 13 Australia A unit of Chevron Corp. has made a fifth gas discovery from its drilling program in offshore permit area WA-267-P, adjacent to Gorgon Field. The Io-1 was drilled to a total depth of 3,030 meters in 1,352 meters of water, some 65 kilometers north of Gorgon Field. The size and gas quality of the Io-1 wildcat well are not yet determined, but Chevron says that it adds significantly to the already substantial reserves in the Greater Gorgon area. The well follows the Geryon-1, Orthrus-1, Urania-1 and Maenad-1 discoveries in the deepwater permit west of Gorgon. A sixth well, Callirhoe, will be spudded shortly. Chevron and Texaco each have a 25% stake in WA-267-P, with the remaining 50% split equally between Exxon Mobil , Shell and BP .