Thursday 19 June 2014

Lundin: Tembakau Appraisal Well in Malaysia

Lundin Petroleum has commenced the first well in its 2014 Malaysian drilling campaign with the spud of the Tembakau-2 appraisal well in Block PM307, offshore Malaysia.

The well will target stacked gas reservoirs in Miocene aged sands in a large, low-relief, structure discovered by Lundin Petroleum’s Tembakau-1 in late 2012.

The discovery well penetrated 60 metres of net gas sands in five high quality sand intervals between 800 metres and 1,250 metres subsea. The appraisal well will core the main reservoir section and is expected to confirm the extent and quality of the gas reservoirs 3.7 kilometres to the south of Tembakau-1. Deliverability will be measured through production testing.

The objective of the well is to confirm the current gross contingent resource estimate of gas as well as to test upside resource potential within the structure and to provide reservoir information  for development planning.

Tembakau-2 is a vertical well to be drilled by the jackup rig West Prospero to a depth of 1,400 metres in approximately 70 metres water depth.

The drilling of the well, including testing, is expected to take approximately 60 days.
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Wednesday 18 June 2014

Statoil: gas discovery offshore Tanzania

The discovery in the Piri prospect is Statoil and co-venturer ExxonMobil’s sixth discovery and the fifth high-impact discovery in Block 2 offshore Tanzania.

The discovery of an additional two to three trillion cubic feet (tcf*) of natural gas in place in the Piri-1 well brings the total of in-place volumes up to approximately 20 tcf in Block 2.

“Since 2012 we have had a 100% success rate in Tanzania and the area has become a core exploration area in a very short period of time. We quickly went from drilling one well to a multi-well programme, and with Piri-1 we are continuing the success,” said Nick Maden, senior vice president for Statoil's exploration activities in the Western Hemisphere.

The new gas discovery was made in the same Lower Cretaceous sandstones as the gas discovery in the Zafarani-1 well drilled in 2012.

The Piri-1 discovery is the venture's sixth discovery in Block 2. It was preceded by the high-impact gas discoveries Zafarani-1, Lavani-1, Tangawizi-1 and Mronge-1, and a discovery in Lavani-2.

Piri-1 was drilled by the drillship Discoverer Americas. The well location is two kilometres southwest of the Lavani-1 well at 2,360-metre water depth. The Discoverer Americas has now moved location and is currently drilling the Binzari prospect in Block 2.
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Tuesday 17 June 2014

CGG wins Saudi Aramco contract

CGG reported ARGAS, its joint venture with TAQA in Saudi Arabia, has been awarded a major contract by Saudi Aramco for an extensive, high-density land seismic program across the Kingdom. Sercel, CGG’s equipment division, will supply all the seismic equipment deployed on this survey program.

The three-year contract provides for two optional extension periods of one year each. The program is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2014 and cover a wide variety of terrain. It will be acquired by a 50,000-channel mega-crew operating with the Sercel 428XL acquisition system, Sercel SG-10 geophones and a fleet of 24 Sercel Nomad 65 Neo vibrators. A mix of high-productivity and conventional acquisition techniques will be deployed depending on survey requirements. CGG’s broadband UltraSeisTM technology portfolio will be deployed to acquire the high-resolution data.

“We are delighted that Saudi Aramco is continuing its long-term relationship with CGG by awarding what is one of the world’s largest land seismic survey programs to our ARGAS joint venture with TAQA. With Sercel also supplying the new seismic equipment, this program marks a key milestone in our 2014-2016 strategic roadmap to benefit from the expansion of ultra-high-channel-count surveys in the Middle East region,” said Jean-Georges Malcor, CEO, CGG.
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