Ireland is enjoying its busiest drilling season in 25 years, says the Irish Offshore Operators Association. It expects as many as eight offshore wells will be drilled this year, at a cost of around $100 million. In the Celtic Sea off the coast of Cork, independent Ramco Energy is developing Seven Heads Field. The firm recently announced that the first well of a five-well program tested gas at a maximum flow rate of 34.3 million cubic feet of gas per day. The company plans to bring the field, which it estimates contains some 300 billion cubic feet of gas, onstream this year. Marathon also plans to drill a fifth subsea gas well in its nearby Kinsale Head area. Offshore northwestern Ireland, Statoil Exploration Ireland plans to drill an exploration well as part of its commitment on License 5/94. That 2,632-square-kilometer block, in the Slyne/Erris Basin, is owned by Statoil, Enterprise Energy Ireland (a unit of Shell) and Murphy Oil. Enterprise will also resume work on its deepwater Dooish prospect, which is 60 miles off the coast of Donegal in the Rockall Basin. Last fall, the firm suspended operations on the discovery, which was drilled in 1,478 meters of water, due to poor weather conditions. The company says initial results from the well were very encouraging. Enterprise's partners in the project are Agip and OMV. -Peggy Williams 1 Canada Talisman Energy Inc. has drilled two successful gas wells in its core Monkman area in northeastern British Columbia. Both wells tested at rates in excess of 20 million cu. ft. per day, and have recently been put on production. The Bullmoose c-86-E was drilled to a total measured depth of 9,570 ft. in the Triassic. It tested 24 million cu. ft. per day, and is now producing 20 million per day. Talisman operates and owns a 73.05% interest in the well, Burlington Resources has 19.3425%, Dominion Exploration Partnership has 4.375% and Enco Resources Co. has 3.255%. The Sukunka c-83-K was drilled to a total measured depth of 12,034 ft. in the Triassic and tested 37 million cu. ft. of gas per day. That well, owned 50% by Talisman and 50% by Burlington, was brought onstream at an initial rate of 22 million cu. ft. per day. Talisman plans to participate in five wells in the Monkman area this year. Its properties there are currently producing 85 million cu. ft. of gas per day. 2 Canada BlackRock Ventures Inc. has been very active at its Seal area in northern Alberta. On its Central Block, in which BlackRock has a 50% working interest in 10 sections of land, the company has drilled seven horizontal development wells of a total 27 it has planned for 2003. Initial production rates are in excess of 250 bbl. per day per well. On its 37-section Northern block, the firm drilled the 16-24-84-15W5M horizontal well. That producer is making 200 bbl. per day. BlackRock says it has potential for 20 to 30 additional locations. It owns a 75% working interest in the Northern Block lands. On its Peace River Block, in which it holds a 100% working interest in 8.25 sections of land, the firm drilled a vertical evaluation well and a horizontal production well capable of producing more than 200 bbl. per day. Additionally, the firm drilled two evaluation wells on the 17-section Peace River North Block and two on the 21-section Western Block. 3 Venezuela Operator ConocoPhillips is proceeding with the Phase I development of Corocoro Field in the Gulf of Paria. The $480-million Phase I project aims at producing 55,000 bbl. of 24-gravity crude oil per day within three years. ConocoPhillips' partners in the venture are Petroleos de Venezuela, ENI and Opic Karimun Corp. In separate activity, PDVSA reports that it has discovered a 350-million-bbl. oil field in eastern Monagas state. Gravity of the oil is 32 degrees. Chaguaramal Field also contains 870 billion cu. ft. of natural gas. 4 Norway Marathon Oil Corp. has made an oil discovery at its Kneler 25/4-7 well in the West Heimdal area of the North Sea. The 7,425-ft. well, drilled on production license 203 in 390 ft. of water about 7.5 miles west of the Heimdal platform, encountered a gross oil column of 155 ft. in the Heimdal formation. The Kneler well is the first of a three-well program operated by Marathon in the area. The company will now drill the Boa prospect, which also targets the Heimdal, on nearby production license 088BS. Marathon operates and owns a 65% working interest in PL 203; ConocoPhillips holds 20%; and, DNO has the remaining 15%. 5 Angola TotalFinaElf reports that it has made two oil discoveries in deep offshore Block 17. The Acacia-1 was drilled in 1,030 meters of water and tested a combined 13,712 bbl. of oil per day from two separate zones. The Hortensia-1, drilled 10 kilometers north of the Acacia well in 830 meters of water, tested 5,092 bbl. of oil per day. The discoveries could be developed jointly with Perpetua and Zinia, which were discovered in December in Block 17. Girassol, the first find on prolific Block 17, came onstream in December 2001. Production is currently 200,000 bbl. per day. Sonangol is the concessionaire of Block 17; TotalFinaElf is the operator and holds a 40% interest. Other partners are ExxonMobil Corp., Statoil and Norsk Hydro. 6 Saudi Arabia An oil field has been discovered by Saudi Aramco in the eastern part of the country, some 160 miles southeast of Riyadh. The Yerbin-1 yielded an average flow of 5,100 bbl. of very light crude and 166 million cu. ft. of gas per day. The Yerbin accumulation is on the southern edge of supergiant Ghawar Field, the largest oil field in the world. 7 Russia Tyumen Oil Co. plans to invest $900 million to recondition Samotlor Field in Western Siberia. Samotlor produces 330,000 barrels of crude oil a day and accounts for 40% of the firm's oil output. TNK wants to increase production at Samotlor by 40% within five years. 8 Russia Between now and 2006, BP plans to invest at least $220 million in a joint project with Rosneft to explore for oil on Sakhalin Island. This year, the firm will spend $20 million; in 2004, spending will rise to $100 million as exploration drilling begins. The companies have two joint projects-Sakhalin-4 and Sakhalin-5-on the island's northeastern shelf. The two blocks of the Sakhalin-4 project are estimated to hold potential reserves of about 880 million bbl. of oil and 19 trillion cu. ft. of gas. Preliminary reserves of the Sakhalin-5 project are estimated at 4.4 billion bbl. of oil and 21 trillion cu. ft. of gas. Both projects will require several billion dollars in investment to build offshore platforms and infrastructure in very difficult weather conditions. 9 Russia Lukoil and KazMunaiGaz have formed a joint venture to develop Khvalinskaya Field in the Caspian Sea. Lukoil will operate the project, which will be held equally by the partners. Khvalinskaya is in the Russian sector of the Caspian, on the Lukoil-operated Severny Block. 10 Azerbaijan Lukoil is increasing its interest in Caspian Sea block Yalama D-222 to 80%. The Russian firm is buying a 20% interest from Socar, the Azeri state oil company. As part of the deal, the companies are expanding the contracted area from 1,287 to 3,037 square kilometers. Yalama, on the Russian-Azeri sea border, is the most promising structure in the mid-Caspian, says Lukoil. The company plans to start drilling for oil on the block in the second half of 2004. In separate activity, BP has started drilling its first production well at Shah Deniz Field, which is in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea. Production from Shah Deniz is slated to begin in 2006. BP operates and owns a 25.5% interest in the project; Statoil has 25.5%; Socar has 10%; Lukoil and ENI jointly have 10%; Nico and TotalFinaElf each own 10%; and TPAO has 9%. The gas will be exported to Turkey via a pipeline that will cross Georgia. 11 Pakistan Austrian energy group OMV AG says it has tested the Sawan-7, a production well in Sawan Field, at the rate of 101 million cu. ft. per day, a record for the country. Sawan, located 500 kilometers north of Karachi, is expected to produce 340 million cu. ft. of gas per day by year-end. 12 India Oil & Natural Gas Corp. announced six new oil and gas finds. The Vasai West discovery, off the Mumbai coast, is estimated to contain 240 million bbl. of oil equivalent. The Laipling-Gaon find, in Assam, contains 100 million bbl. of oil. In the Krishna-Godavari Basin, off the Andhra coast, ONGC made two discoveries. Also, the firm made a gas find in Rajasthan's Chinnewala Tibba and an oil find in Banamali. The company did not give any reserve figures on the new fields, saying these were being verified. 13 Indonesia ConocoPhillips successfully tested the Suban-8 delineation well on the southwest flank of Suban Field, on the Corridor production-sharing contract of South Sumatra. The well, which tested a separate fault block adjacent to and southwest of the main field, was drilled to a total depth of 3,147 meters. It encountered a gross pay section in excess of 400 meters, and tested at a maximum rate of 35 million cu. ft. of gas and 163 bbl. of condensate per day. ConocoPhillips operates and owns a 54% interest in the PSC; Talisman Energy Inc. has a 35% interest; and Pertamina has 10%.