Agip has apparently struck oil in the Barents Sea, offshore northern Norway. The Italian firm's 7122/7-1 exploratory well, on License 229, found oil at 381 meters in sandstone reservoirs. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate estimates that the find contains recoverable hydrocarbon reserves in the range of 250 million barrels of oil. Agip has a 25% interest in the license; Phillips Petroleum, 25%; Statoil, 20%; and Enterprise Oil and Fortum, 15% each. The Agip well is the second to be drilled in the Barents Sea after a six-year hiatus. A test by Norsk Hydro came up dry earlier this year. Agip plans to drill another location in the area shortly, on License 201 some 150 kilometers southwest of the discovery. Statoil plans a test this coming spring. Few finds have been made to date in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea, and the wells that have been successful have encountered natural gas. The largest find to date is Snoehvit Field, which the NPD estimates to contain about 2.7 trillion cubic feet of gas and 42 million barrels of liquids. Operator Statoil plans to start production from Snoehvit, which is about 50 kilometers from Agip's discovery, in 2006. -Peggy Williams 1 Trinidad & Tobago BP reports that it has discovered a major natural gas accumulation at Red Mango Field, 35 miles east of Galeota Point. The find contains indicated volumes of 3 trillion cu. ft. of gas and 90 million bbl. of liquids. BP, which says Red Mango is the largest find in the country to date, is beginning appraisal drilling. 2 Ghana Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. has farmed out interests in three West African exploration blocks to Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. In Ghana, Anadarko will have a 50% interest in the Devon-operated Keta Block, over which a deepwater seismic survey was recently completed. The partners plan to immediately drill a shelf-edge exploration well. In the Republic of Congo, Anadarko will operate and own a 37.5% working interest in the Marine IX Block, on which a deepwater exploration well is planned for next year. Finally, in Gabon, Anadarko will operate and hold a 50% interest in the Agali Block. A deepwater 3-D survey is slated for this concession in early 2001. 3 Equatorial Guinea Dearborn, Michigan-based CMS Energy Corp. reports that it has successfully completed a development well offshore in Alba Field. The Alba #7 encountered 266 ft. of net gas sands and tested 53 million cu. ft. of gas and 3,000 bbl. of condensate per day on a 1-in. choke. The company is now drilling ahead on the Alba #8. The wells are part of an accelerated development project that is projected to increase the field's production capacity from 90 million cu. ft. to 225 million cu. ft. of gas per day. Approximately 115 million cu. ft. per day will be supplied to a methanol production plant now under construction on Bioko Island, some 18 miles away. Partners in the Alba projects are CMS, with 52.38%; Noble Affiliates, 33.75%; Globex International, 10.87%; and the Equatorial Guinean government, 3%. 4 Angola Another major field has been found on the Chevron-operated Block 14. The Lobito-1X was drilled in 1,340 ft. of water and tested at a rate of 10,200 bbl. of oil per day. This find lies near the Kuito (1997), Benguela (1998), Belize (1998) and Tomboco (2000) discoveries. Kuito, Angola's first deepwater development, began production a year ago and is currently making more than 70,000 bbl. of oil per day. Contracts for front-end engineering and design work for Benguela/Belize are expected to be tendered shortly. Partners in the 1,560-square-mile Block 14 are Chevron, with a 31% interest; Sonangol, Agip and TotalFinaElf, 20% each; and Petrogal, 9%. 5 Tanzania Vancouver-based Tanganyika Oil Co. Ltd. is to begin drilling two test wells on the 1.25-million-acre Mandawa Concession in southern Tanzania. The 8,000-ft. Mbate-1 will target Middle Jurassic sands. That test will be immediately followed by the Mita Alpha-1 well. The company notes that its prospects were generated by subsurface, seismic and geochemical data. 6 Yemen Vintage Petroleum Inc. reports progress on its Yemen drilling program. The Tulsa-based company has completed testing the Harmel #1, the second of four exploration wells it has drilled on Block S-1. In the Harmel #1, drilled on a structural closure that covers as much as 10 square miles, three separate zones between 1,600 and 2,500 ft. were swab tested at a combined rate of 500 bbl. per day. The completion rig is now being moved to Vintage's An Naeem #2 well to test a potential oil zone in the Alif formation. The An Naeem #1 well flow tested at a combined rate of 40 million cu. ft. of gas and 1,020 bbl. of condensate per day from the Alif formation. Following testing on An Naeem #2, the rig will be moved to the Fordus #1 to carry out testing on several indicated oil zones. 7 Kazakhstan Another exploration well is under way at offshore Kashagan Field in the Caspian Sea. The Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Co. has spudded its West Kashagan prospect, some 48 kilometers from the East Kashagan-1 discovery well. The drilling barge Sunkar has been positioned on a semisubmerged island that measures 85.5 by 116 meters. Drilling should be completed this spring on the test, which is the second on the 75-kilometer-long structure. The OKIOC partners are Phillips Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Agip, BG Plc, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP, Inpex, TotalFinaElf and Statoil. 8 Russia Exxon Mobil Corp. and its Sakhalin 1 partners say that they have found a significant accumulation of oil off the coast of Sakhalin Island. The Chayvo-6, drilled in 15 meters of water to a depth of 3,075 meters, encountered an oil column of 104 meters. The well tested at 6,000 bbl. of oil a day. The participants in the Sakhalin 1 consortium are Exxon Mobil, with 30%; Sodeco, a consortium of Japanese companies, 30%; Russian firm SMNG-Shelf, 23%; and Rosneft- Sakhalin, 17%. 9 Vietnam Unocal Corp. says that it has confirmed its earlier Kim Long natural gas resource in Block B and discovered a new field on Block 52/97. At Kim Long, initially discovered in 1997, the company has completed four successful wells in a 21-mile-long trend. Three of the four wells, drilled in less than 300 ft. of water, have been tested. The B-KL-1X flowed 53 million cu. ft. of gas per day from two zones; the B-AQ-1X had a maximum calculated flow rate of 39 million cu. ft. per day from three zones; and the 52/97-AQ-3X flowed 54 million cu. ft. per day from five zones. Average net pay for all four wells is 136 ft. Also, Unocal's 52/97-CV-1X exploration well, drilled on the Ca Voi prospect in Block 52/97, encountered 107 net ft. of gas pay. This find lies 10 miles west of the Kim Long trend. In Block B and 48/95, Unocal holds a 49.86% interest; a unit of Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. Ltd., 30.14%; and PTTEP, 10%. PetroVietnam holds 10%, and also has an option to participate for an additional 15%. In Block 52/97, Unocal has 62%; Mitsui, 28%; and PTTEP, 10%. PetroVietnam holds an option to participate for a 30% interest. 10 Vietnam Conoco reports that its exploratory well on offshore Block 15-1 in the Cuu Long Basin has flowed oil at the rate of 17,800 bbl. per day. The rate was calculated from combined well tests of more than 12,600 bbl. per day from three zones, and an additional estimated 5,200 bbl. per day from three other zones. An appraisal well and second exploratory well will be drilled on the block in early 2001. Conoco holds a 23.25% interest in Block 15-1; PetroVietnam, 50%; Korean National Oil Co., 14.25%; SK Corp., 9%; and Geopetrol, 3.5%. 11 China A unit of Calgary-based Husky Energy Inc. has signed a petroleum contract with China National Offshore Oil Corp. for the joint development of Wenchang 13-1 and 13-2 oil fields in the South China Sea. Husky will hold a 40% working interest in the CNOOC-operated fields. Discovered in 1997, the Wenchang fields lie in 100 meters of water in the western Pearl River Mouth Basin, approximately 300 kilometers south of Hong Kong. Oil production is slated to begin in the first half of 2002; a peak production rate of 50,000 bbl. per day is expected. Recoverable reserves for the two fields are estimated at approximately 100 million bbl. 12 New Zealand Connecticut-based Magellan Petroleum Corp. reports that it has acquired a 20% working interest in the southern portion of petroleum exploration permit 38256 from Canadian firm AMG Oil Ltd. in return for contributing to the cost of drilling the Ealing-1 well. The Ealing-1 well, some 120 kilometers southwest of Christchurch, is projected to 1,750 meters to test Upper Eocene Homebush sandstones. Depending on results, Magellan may elect to acquire a 20% working interest in the northern portion of the permit by contributing to the drilling of the Arcadia-1 well. PEP 38256 covers approximately 5,600 square kilometers of the onshore Canterbury Basin in the South Island of New Zealand. The last drilling in the onshore portion of the Canterbury Basin occurred in 1978, notes Magellan. The participants in the Ealing-1 well are Magellan, with 20%; AMG, 50%; operator Indo-Pacific (NZ) Ltd., 20%; and Orion Exploration Ltd., 10%.