Husky Energy Inc. is having a busy summer offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The Calgary-based company has added a 40- to 90-million-barrel discovery to its reserves at White Rose Field, in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin. The White Rose O-28 delineation well was drilled in the western section of White Rose Field to a depth of 3,342 meters. It encountered a 280-meter oil column in the Ben Nevis Avalon formation. The new find is in addition to gross proved and probable reserves in White Rose proper of approximately 240 million barrels. At present, the company is producing approximately 85,000 barrels of oil per day from four wells in 120 meters of water in the South Avalon pool. Two additional wells scheduled to be completed this year will raise levels to 125,000 barrels a day. White Rose is in Significant Discovery License 1044. Husky Energy operates and holds a 72.5% working interest in the field. Additionally, Husky has farmed into Norsk Hydro's West Bonne Bay prospect in SDL 1040. The test is close to Terra Nova Field, in water depths of 100 meters. Under the terms of the agreement, Husky will operate the drilling program and receive a 25% working interest in SDL 1040 and an additional 7.5% in the North Ben Nevis SDL 1008. The Bonne Bay well is under way. 1 Nicaragua Denver-based Infinity Energy Resources signed E&P contracts with the government of Nicaragua to develop the Tyra and Perlas blocks off the nation's east coast. Negotiations took three years. The latest contracts give the company up to six years to explore the blocks, and if it declares commercial results, up to 30 years for development, with a possible five-year extension. Infinity plans to spend $1 million on exploration in the first year and up to $2 million more on environmental and geophysical studies. 2 Ecuador Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. asked the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes to arbitrate after Ecuador seized Block 15 assets that Oxy had sold to EnCana Corp. in 2000. The government claimed the company sold its 40% share in the block without Ecuador's permission, had overproduced some wells and hadn't followed the investment plan for the block. The nation's energy minister terminated the contract and turned over operations to state-owned Petroproduccion, a subsidiary of Petroecuador. According to Business News Americas, Petroproduccion recently produced 101,047 bbl. of oil per day from Eden-Yuturi and Limoncocha fields. 3 Peru State oil company Perupetro approved a contract with Hunt Oil Co. (Block 76) of Peru LLC, a subsidiary of Hunt Consolidated Inc., for exploration and exploitation of Block 76. The 1.4-million-hectare block is between the Madre de Dios, Cusco and Puno departments. The company pledged a $40-million investment to perform the minimum work program on the license. Hunt Oil is also a participant in the construction of Peru LNG's facility for natural gas export. 4 Argentina Repsol YPF, Petrobras Energia of Argentina, Argentine state oil company Enarsa and the Petrouruguay subsidiary of Uruguary state oil company Ancap will invest $30 million in exploration in the unexplored E-1 block in Colorado Marina Basin offshore Argentina. If exploration research looks positive, the partners could spend another $30 million each on new wells in the area. They already have signed a contract with WesternGeco for 3-D seismic, including a three-month evaluation of existing seismic. Repsol YPF plans to invest $500 million on exploration in Argentina between 2005 and 2009, and $200 million of that will go to offshore exploration. 5 Germany Pannonian International Ltd. is waiting for a completion rig to test four initial zones for gas at its Glantal-1 well in Germany, the first well drilled by the company and its partners in their Glantal gas project. After analyzing log information, the company decided those four zones should receive priority treatment. Two zones have multiple intervals that are close enough to test at the same time, so the companies will initially test eight intervals in four zones. Pannonian is a subsidiary of Denver-based Galaxy Energy Corp. 6 Egypt Calgary-based Centurion Energy has spudded its first well in the Nile Delta since Shell farmed in for half of its acreage. The Canadian firm is drilling the Luzi-1 exploration well in the West El Manzala concession, targeting a prospect on trend with existing El Wastani Field. The well has already encountered gas in the El Wastani formation at a depth of 1,009 meters. The interval is being evaluated with openhole logs and the well will then be drilled ahead to test the deeper targets. 7 Niger China's CNPC will spud the first in a rare three-well exploration program on the Tenere concession in landlocked Niger this fall. The first is the Saha-1 and will be drilled in the southwest corner of the Tenere Trough to an approximate depth of 3,600 meters. The second, Fachi West-1, will be drilled close to the graben center, north of Saha-1 and southwest of the 1970s-vintage Fachi-1 well. The location for the third will be chosen after a seismic survey is completed. Exploration was scheduled to start earlier, but CNPC had to buy 20 specialized desert vehicles to transport the equipment. 8 Madagascar The latest company to take acreage in this increasingly popular East African island is BG Group. The firm has taken the 30% stake in ExxonMobil's Majunga Offshore Profond exploration block that was previously held by Houston independent Vanco Energy Co. The work program includes an exploration well planned for early 2007. The block, which covers approximately 15,840 sq. kilometers, is in 200 to 3,000 meters of water off northwestern Madagascar. Korean firm SK Corp. also holds interests in the block. Madagascar is currently holding an international licensing round that has attracted interest from both majors and independents. 9 Iraq Norway's DNO tested 5,000 bbl. of oil per day at its Tawke-1 well in Iraqi Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The flow was restricted by the test equipment. The company tested six zones and confirmed oil in four. DNO estimates reserves in the discovery at up to 100 million bbl. of oil. 10 Saudi Arabia Halliburton earned the development contract from Saudi Aramco for giant Khurais Field, about 250 kilometers southwest of Dharhan. Under the development plan, by 2009 the field will add 1.2 million bbl. of oil per day to Saudi Arabia's oil production. The company will put 23 rigs to work to drill more than 300 wells. At some $6 billion, this will be the biggest development along the Persian Gulf since the 1950s. The project includes Khurais, Abu Jifan and Mazalij fields. Along with oil, it will produce some 315 million cu. ft. of sour gas and 70,000 bbl. of gas liquids per day. 11 Uzbekistan Russia's Lukoil is moving in to drill development wells in the Khauzak contract area in southwestern Alatsky District in the Bukhara region. The development is part of the larger Kanym-Khauzak-Shady-Kungad, massive 35-year development program. The program area has approximately 11.6 trillion cu. ft. of gas in place, and total production could reach 7.3 trillion. At Khauzak, Lukoil has completed a 3-D seismic survey, started workovers on three wells, and spudded one new well. In total, it plans 37 new development wells on the block. The full program calls for 180 wells. 12 India Indian operator Focus Energy Ltd. discovered gas on its Rajasthan Block RJ-ON/6 in the SGL-1 well in the Shahgarh area of Jaisalmer district. On a drillstem test, the well flowed 15 million cu. ft. per day on a 48/64-in. choke from the Cretaceous Lower Goru formation at a depth of around 3,100 meters. The company says the discovery could be one of India's largest onshore gas deposits and is the first stratigraphic discovery on India's side of the Indus Basin. It is on the same stratigraphic trend as fields that produce trillions of cubic feet of gas in Pakistan. 13 Malaysia El Dorado, Ark.-based Murphy Oil will soon finish its field-development plan for a series of projects offshore Sarawak, after finding a buyer for the gas. The firm signed a heads of agreement with Petronas for the sale of gas from Sarawak blocks SK 309 and SK 311 at an initial rate of up to 300 million cu. ft. per day for up to 15 years. Initial deliveries are scheduled for 2008 into the existing Petronas LNG complex at Bintulu. Murphy, as operator, has an 85% working interest in SK 309 and SK 311. Petronas Carigali holds the remaining interest. 14 Indonesia Indonesia recently awarded four new offshore blocks in an effort to boost its oil production. ExxonMobil was awarded Sarumana Block in the Makassar Straits off East Kalimantan; Marathon Oil and Calgary-based Talisman Energy were jointly awarded Pasangkayu Block in Sulawesi; and Petronas Carigali received Lampung II Block in Sumatra. Canada's Husky Energy took East Bawean II Block in East Java. Indonesia, the only Asian member of OPEC, has been a net importer of oil for several years.