Africa

1. Agip has spudded a deepwater wildcat off Congo Brazzaville - only the second off the West African republic. The well, ZuluM1, is being drilled by the Saipem 10000 drillship at a water depth of 7,680 ft (2,341 m) in the Mer Très Profonde Nord block and was to be completed by the end of July. The rig then will move to drill another well off Congo for TotalFinaElf (TFE) at a water depth of 6,562 ft (2,000 m). TFE has had the only previous success in deepwater Congo with the Andromede Marine-1 discovery. The well was in the Mer Très Profonde Sud block, in a water depth of 6,211 ft (1,893 m), and tested at 7,000 b/d of high-quality oil. Next on the hit list for the Saipem 10000 is a well off Guinea for TFE, again in a water depth of about 6,562 ft (2,000 m). The rig then will move to Angola for ExxonMobil and finish the year in Gabon, again with TFE.

2. BP has made another deepwater gas discovery off Egypt and consolidated its position by buying out its partner in a virgin block. The UK operator completed testing the Libra well on the North Alexandria block, where the flow rate was 22 MMcf/d of gas and 150 b/d of condensate. The Atwood Southern Cross semisubmersible drilled the well in 1,830-ft (600-m) waters. Reserves have initially been estimated at 500 Bcf. Exploration on the block is to be accelerated with the company hoping to drill another three to six wells within 12 months, after which it will make a final investment decision. It has tendered for a rig and is analyzing the bids. The company also bought out partner TotalFinaElf from the West Mediterranean Deepwater Area Concession. This means the French major has left the upstream industry in the North African country. The two previously held 50% each in the Nile Delta block, on which the first well will be drilled later this year. BP recently announced the 600 Bcf Fayoum discovery on North Alexandria. It was drilled in 1,300-ft (400-m) waters and tested dry gas at a rate of 21 MMcf/d from the main target zone and at 6 MMcf/d from a secondary, siltier zone. The tubing size constrained the test flow rate in the primary target zone. On the same block, the Taurus well also successfully tested gas last year. BP holds the adjacent deepwater North Idku concession. BP has invested more than US $9 billion in Egypt during the past 40 years and must spend at least $48 million on the west Mediterranean block before the license runs out in 2004.

3. TotalFinaElf soon will spud the first ultradeepwater well off Equatorial Guinea. The French firm holds virgin Block E, which some suggest is highly prospective. The well was spudded in August in 6,562-ft (2,000-m) waters by the Saipem 10000 drillship. Block E was on the disputed boundary with Nigeria but is to the east of OPL 246, where TotalFinaElf made the 1 billion-bbl Akpo discovery. The Equatorial Guinean block also neighbors acreage held by Sao Tome and Principe.

4. Ghana continues to slide down the table of popular countries in West Africa with a deepwater block being given back. In other countries in the region, this would cause a dogfight among operators for the block, but this is unlikely in Ghana, where success has been extremely limited. To make matters worse, national oil company GNPC is the target of a political campaign and beset by infighting with a huge redundancy program set to start. Nuevo Energy gave up the 1.9 million-acre Accra-Keta permit after completing analysis of its NAK-1 well. This was drilled in 1,100-ft (361-m) waters but came up dry. "Final evaluation of the technical data from the NAK-1 well leads us to the conclusion that further drilling within the permit is not compatible with our exploration parameters. Overall Nuevo remains committed to exploration in select African basins that are situated within or adjacent to proven hydrocarbon trends," said Chief Executive Officer Phillip Gobe. Nuevo held 50% of the block, having managed to sell 12.5% stakes to Korean National Oil Corp. and SK Corp. earlier this year.

5. UK independent Premier Oil hopes to drill its first well off Africa by the middle of 2002 after taking operatorship of three blocks in some of the last remaining frontier acreage. The company, whose major holdings are in Asia, has stumped up for stakes in blocks 2, 4A and 5A off Guinea Bissau. Canada's Petrobank Energy & Resources previously held Block 2. Premier will earn a 55% stake by paying for one exploration well. In the other blocks, obligations entail seismic processing. The company has not identified a firm location for the well but is tentatively investigating the rig market. All the blocks are in water depths of around 328 ft to 3,280ft (10 m to 1,000 m), with Block 2 covering 906 sq miles (2,346 sq km), Block 4A about 396 sq miles (1,026 sq km) and Block 5A about 950 sq miles (2,460 sq km). Petrobank has retained 15% of the blocks, while national oil company Petroguin holds the remaining 30%. Only 10 wells have been drilled off the country, with most recording oil shows. Veritas completed 2,266 miles (3,605 km) of 2-D seismic over the Mauritanian offshore in late January, and the six blocks on offer were only opened for bidding in June. "We have identified the highly prospective West African area as an important new business region for Premier and have succeeded in acquiring this significant exploration opportunity," said Premier Chief Executive Officer Charles Jamieson. Funding obligations in the exploration phase in all three blocks are Premier Oil (78.6%) and Petrobank (21.4%).

6. Eurogas Corp. will continue with exploration wells in the North African oil and gas minnow of Tunisia despite the failure of its latest well. The Douz-1 exploration well reached final total depth of 7,553 ft (2,317 m), and two separate testing operations were conducted over the most encouraging hydrocarbon show intervals within the primary objective, Tagi sandstones. The zones were completely evaluated by the testing procedure, no hydrocarbons were recovered on either test, and the well was abandoned. Douz-1 is the first of three wells that will be drilled on the Canadian's acreage in the country to test the potential of the Tagi sands in the Triassic fairway play in southern Tunisia. Eurogas has working interests varying from 30% to 50% in more than 2.8 million acres in three blocks, on which several potential prospects and leads have been mapped.