The winter drilling season in Canada's northern reaches is under way. Shortly, Chevron Canada Ltd. and its partner BP Canada expect to spud the Olivier H-1 well on Olivier Island in Exploration License 422 in the Mackenzie Delta, reports Nickle's Petroleum Explorer. Operator Chevron has already barged equipment and supplies into the area of the well location, which is about 100 kilometers northwest of Inuvik, Northwest Territories. The companies also hold a permit for a second test, the Olivier H-2. In separate activity on EL 384, EnCana Corp. and its partners Anadarko Canada and ConocoPhillips will drill a new well, the Umiak N-5, and test an existing well. Operator EnCana will drill the Umiak N-5 in the Burnt Lake area of the Delta, targeting several Richards and Taglu Eocene sands. The companies will also test the Umiak N-16 well, which was drilled in first-quarter 2004 at Richard's Island to a depth of 3,101 meters. Meanwhile, in the Yukon, Devon Energy and its partner Canada Southern Petroleum Ltd. are currently drilling a $20-million well at Kotaneelee. The Kotaneelee L-38 development well is a horizontal Nahanni test projected to a depth of 4,882 meters. It is the first drilling to occur in the territory in more than 20 years. -Peggy Williams 1 Colombia Harken Energy's 85%-owned subsidiary Global Energy Development has completed the Estero 5 development well in Palo Blanco Field, in the Llanos Basin. Global perforated the Traditional Ubaque and Upper Massive Ubaque formations and tested 15.6-gravity oil at a combined rate of 200 bbl. per day. The completion brings to five the number of producing wells in the field. Harken also reports that it will explore for additional oil in the nearby Los Hatos area, under a contract with the nation's National Hydrocarbons Agency. 2 Brazil State firm Petrobras has discovered light oil at a depth of about 3,200 ft. at its 1-Fazenda Rosario-3-AL well, drilled in the BT-SEAL-2 block in the onshore part of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin. Preliminary estimates put reserves at approximately 15 million bbl. of oil equivalent. The discovery well is about 23 miles southeast of Maceio. Also onshore Brazil, the regulatory agency ANP will encourage exploration in the Sao Francisco River Basin by spending $15 million on its own exploration program. The agency has planned this study for the past two years but had to postpone it for lack of funds in both years. Between 65% and 70% of the study will take place in Minas Gerais state. 3 Argentina Petro Andina Oil Co. of Canada has drilled three wells in its exploration program on Block CNQ7A in the Malarque zone of the Neuquen Basin, in Mendoza province. Petro Andina currently partners with Repsol YPF on two blocks in the area, and plans to invest $40 million in Argentina in 2005. The province, which is immediately north of the prolific Neuquen province, plans to offer 24 oil and gas exploration tracts to high bidders this year. 4 Jordan The government of Jordan has approved an agreement allowing London-based Sonoran Energy to study the exploration potential of an oil field east of Amman, the capital. Sonoran will study the Azraq Block and the potential for increasing production from Hamzah Field with modern drilling, completion and field development techniques. At the end of the study period, Sonoran will have first option on the 11,250-sq.-kilometer Asraq Block. Hamzah Field has been producing since 1985. 5 Iran Total SA and the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) have agreed to the framework of the future Pars liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and its main commercial terms. The Pars LNG joint venture, which is designed for an initial capacity of two trains of 5 million tons of LNG per year, will be owned 50% by NIOC, 30% by Total and 20% by Petronas. The agreement allows the start of engineering studies for both the LNG plant and the development of Block 11 of South Pars Field, which will supply the plant. 6 Saudi Arabia A consortium has completed the acquisition of 128,000 kilometers of new aerial gravity data on the Rub Al-Khali gas exploration concession. The project's partners-Shell, Saudi Aramco and Total SA-have a license to explore for and produce non-associated gas and condensate in the 209,160-sq.-kilometer concession. During the next several years, the partners will acquire 10,000 kilometers of 2-D seismic and drill up to seven exploration wells. 7 Yemen A couple of appraisal programs are under way in Yemen. On Block 43, Norwegian operator DNO encountered two hydrocarbon-bearing intervals in the Qishn interval in its Nabrajah-3. The 1,805-meter test is the second appraisal well following the Nabrajah-1 discovery that the company drilled early in 2004. Following its testing, the Nabrajah-3 will be suspended as a future producer and the rig will move to the Nabrajah-4 location, some 800 meters east of the Nabrajah-1. DNO operates Block 43 and holds a 56.67% interest, Oil Search has 28.33%, and The Yemen Co. has 15%. Meanwhile, in the East Shabwa development area in Block 10, Total SA is in the midst of a three-well drilling program that is targeting the basement in Kharir Field. The first well, the KHA-401, was drilled to test a downthrown fault block in the far eastern end of the field. It encountered oil and gas shows and two thin zones of interest in Upper Biyad Cretaceous reservoir and some 340 meters of possible fractured basement. It is currently suspended. The second well, the KHA-402, was drilled to a total depth of 3,441 meters. It was designed to evaluate the flanks of the crestal area, and oil and gas shows were encountered throughout the basement. Completion equipment is being moved to the location. The drilling rig is now ready to spud the third appraisal. Total's partners in the East Shabwa joint venture are Soco International Plc, Occidental Yemen Ltd. and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. 8 Kazakhstan China Energy Ventures Corp., Calgary, says that its Vector Energy West LLP subsidiary has asked for bids on a 10-well drilling program in the Atyrau and Liman-2 blocks on the northern coast of the Caspian Sea. The wells will test Jurassic at depths shallower than 1,200 meters. This year, the company plans to use revenues from shallower, post-salt production to test potentially more prolific, deeper, pre-salt formations. Separately, the government of Kazakhstan reached an agreement in principle with reluctant partners in the giant Kashagan Field that will allow Kazakhstan to acquire as much as one-sixth of the field. BG planned to sell its share in Kashagan, and working-interest partners had first right of refusal for that share. BG had negotiated a sale price of $1.23 billion with its industry partners when the government stepped in and claimed a right to take the share. It also passed a set of laws making the takeover legal, including a law that gives the government first right of refusal ahead of other partners. 9 Bangladesh U.K. firm Tullow Oil tested gas at an aggregate rate of 120 million cu. ft. per day from three intervals in its Bangora-1 discovery well in onshore Block 9. It drilled the well to 3,636 meters and found several gas zones between 2,580 and 3,285 meters. The lowermost E sand flowed gas at rates of up to 24.5 million cu. ft. per day; the Lower D sand tested 41.2 million cu. ft. per day; and, the Upper D sand tested 56 million cu. ft. per day. Shallower gas-bearing sands will be tested at a later date, says Tullow. With the company's earlier Lalmai well, it has discoveries at each end of a 40-kilometer-long anticline. Its partners in Block 9 are Niko Resources of Canada, and Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration & Production Co. Ltd. (Bapex). 10 Bangladesh South of Block 9, Canada's Niko Resources has completed another well and started production at a rate of more than 20 million cu. ft. per day from Feni Field, 125 kilometers southeast of Dhaka in the Feni Block. Niko's Feni 5 well was directionally drilled to a total depth of 3,364 meters, and four drillstem tests produced gas at a combined rate of 29.3 million cu. ft. per day. It is the company's third successful well in the once-fallow field. A new gas plant on its way to Bangladesh from Canada should allow Niko to double production, it says. Niko operates the Feni Block and holds an 80% working interest and Bapex holds the remaining 20%. 11 India State-owned firm Oil India Ltd. has discovered two fields in Assam state in northeastern India. The Baghjan and North Chandmari fields in the Dibrugarh district have apparent reserves totaling 73 million bbl. of oil equivalent. The company is evaluating the fields and drawing up development plans. Also in the Assam region, India has extended development rights for six months to Premier Oil for its Phase 1 development on Block CR-ON-90/1 on the Cachar Block. The Cachar Block covers 2,570 square kilometers, and lies adjacent to large gas discoveries in eastern Bangladesh. Premier says that it has interpreted very large structures on satellite and seismic data on the block, and there are a number of oil discoveries and seeps east and west. 12 China In the South China Sea, CNOOC Ltd. has produced first oil from its Huizhou 19-3/2/1 Field at a rate of 6,500 bbl. of oil per day. The field is about 120 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong in blocks 16/08 and 16/19. The development plan calls for 14 wells drilled from two platforms with tiebacks to a floating production, storage and offloading vessel. The field will be capable of producing at peak rates of 45,000 bbl. of oil per day, say partners CNOCC, Eni and ChevronTexaco.