?1 In Texas state waters, Hall-Houston Exploration II LP of Houston is drilling a 4,600-ft. test in Calhoun County (RRC District 2). The company’s #1 Matagorda Island State Tract 663-L N2 NE4 was spudded in August 2008, but operations were halted by Hurricane Ike. At last report, Hall-Houston had set 103?4-in. casing at 2,500 ft.?
Also in state waters but in Matagorda County, Sanchez Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, has staked a 9,500-ft. wildcat. The #1 State Tract 567-S is scheduled to be drilled from a surface location in the southwestern section of Matagorda Island Block 567-S, a small, 320-acre tract three miles off the coast of Matagorda Island.

2 Sanchez Oil & Gas Corp. has scheduled a wildcat, #1 Myatt Minerals, in the northwestern portion of Matagorda County, Texas, (RRC District 3) 14 miles from El Campo in Section 2, TT RR Co. Survey, A-510. Sanchez plans to drill the well to 9,800 ft., with Frio as the apparent target. Houston-based Sanchez is also drilling an exploratory test well in Wharton County, about three miles from #1 Myatt Minerals. The #1 Treybig, in Section 2, Joseph Hyland Survey, A-626, is part of Blue Basin Field and, at last report, was waiting on completion tools with 41?2-in. production casing set on bottom.

3?Vancouver-based Southern Star Operating has successfully drilled and logged the Cotton Valley interval in a vertical well in Bossier Parish, La.?The #2 Atkins-Lincoln 17 is in Section 17-19n-13w and was cased to 9,500 ft. with intermediate 7-in. pipe. Southern Star is drilling to test the deeper Haynesville shale at about 11,000 ft. Wireline and mud logs indicate the well encountered 68 ft. of net effective gas pay in Cotton Valley that the company says are characteristic of each of its seven previously successful Cotton Valley wells.

4?Houston-based Union Gas Operating Co. has scheduled two wildcats about five miles east of Dry Creek in Allen Parish, La. The #1 Crosby Chemicals Inc. is in Section 36-4s-6w and the #1 PBA Properties is in Section 27-5s-6w. The planned total depth for each wildcat is 5,500 ft., targeting Frio.?Union is active at another wildcat in the area, #1 Marcantel Farms, in Section 34-5s-6w, which is near completion after it was drilled to a total depth of 9,708 ft. and 95?8-inch production casing was set to 3,405 ft.

5 Another Vermilion Block exploration wildcat, #1 OCS G27856, has been spudded by Apache Corp. Located in Block 141 offshore Louisiana, in 80 ft. of water, Houston-based Apache expects to complete drilling in 28 days. Rights to Block 141 were originally acquired by Lymac Exploration & Production LLC for $271,000 at OCS Sale 198, held in March 2006. Apache was designated operator of the tract in March 2008. This is Apache’s first activity on Block 141.

6?BP Exploration & Production Inc., Houston, plans to drill up to eight exploratory tests in the deepwater Kaskida Field area from various surface locations on Keathley Canyon Block 291. Water depth on the block ranges from 5,728 to 5,800 ft., and the drill sites are adjacent to Block 292, the site of several successful tests drilled by BP in Kaskida Field in the Lower Tertiary trend. Block 292 is the lone Keathley Canyon tract to receive a field designation from the Minerals Management Service. Fewer than 20 tests have been drilled in the area. The most recent test on Block 292 was drilled with a drillship, then temporarily abandoned in June 2008 after it encountered 800 net ft. of hydrocarbon-bearing sands in the Lower Tertiary trend.

7?An offshore Louisiana exploratory test has been permitted by?Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co. in Vermilion Block 229. The company’s #1 OCS G27070 will be drilled in the north-central portion of Block 229, where the water depth is 131 ft. Hunt acquired drilling rights to the tract for $141,770 at OCS Sale 194, held in March 2005. Since Vermilion Block 214 came onstream in 1974, the reservoir has produced 29.2 million bbl. of crude and condensate, 172.8 billion cu. ft. of gas and 71.9 million bbl. of water.

8 Two Winn Parish, La., wildcats have been permitted. According to IHS Inc., Jena, La.-based Justiss Oil Co. Inc. has staked a wildcat, #1 C.H. Clifton, in the northern portion of the parish in Section 8-13n-1w. The proposed depth of 3,500 ft. apparently targets Wilcox.
Dallas-based Axis Onshore LP’s wildcat is in the southern portion of Winn Parish, about five miles northeast of the town of Atlanta. Company plans call for #1 Weyerhaeuser to be drilled to 6,500 ft. It is in Section 15-10n-3w, and there is no comparable production in the vicinity.

9 Pantheon Resources, London, reports that its #1 Jumonville in Iberville Parish, La., initially flowed 520 bbl. per day of 40.8 API-gravity light oil, with no water, and 293,000 cu. ft. of gas through a restricted 7/64-in. choke. The well has a flowing pressure of 7,323 psi from Camerina sands, which are about 200 ft. above Miogyp reservoir. The upper eight feet of the 47-ft. Miogyp sand interval was perforated. A second development well, #2 Jumonville, is planned from the existing location. It will test the deeper Cib Haz interval and delineate the Miogyp reservoir about 1,500 ft. west of #1 Jumonville.

10 Marathon Oil Co. has filed a development plan to drill and complete several wells on its Droshky project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.?According to IHS Inc., Marathon will complete two wells recently drilled from surface locations in the eastern portion of Green Canyon Block 244. An additional three wells are scheduled to be drilled and completed from similar surface locations in the eastern portion of the block.
A recent Droshky completion, #3 (ST) OCS G11043, reached total depth of 20,775 ft. earlier this year. Water depth in the area is 2,950 ft., and operations are expected to begin in mid-2009 and finish in mid-2010. The Droshky discovery, formerly named Troika Deep, is two miles south of the Troika Field production system on Block 200. First production from Droshky is expected between 2010 and 2011. Marathon, based in Houston, holds a 100% stake in the deepwater project.

11 Houston-based BP America Inc. has an oil discovery at its Freedom prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico offshore Louisiana’s Mississippi Canyon Block 948 in about 6,100 ft. of water. Freedom was drilled to about 29,280 ft. and encountered more than 550 net ft. of pay in Middle and Lower Miocene reservoirs. Appraisal will be required to determine the size and commercial potential of the discovery. The well is operated by BP Exploration & Production Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of BP America Inc., with a 25% working interest. Other owners include Noble Energy Inc., with 37%; Samson Offshore Co., with 25%; and Marathon Oil Co., 12.5%. The lease was acquired by Noble Energy and Samson Offshore at federal OCS Lease Sale 198 in March 2006.

12 A test has been staked on the ultra-deepwater Cascade West venture in Walker Ridge. Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. plans to drill #1 OCS G16969 in the far northeastern portion of Walker Ridge Block 249 in 8,134 ft. of water. Devon and Brazilian deepwater expert Petrobras each own a 50% interest in the block. Petrobras is planning to install a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility two miles south of the proposed location on the same block. The FPSO will also pick up production from Cascade East, in adjoining Block 206, and Chinook Field, to the south on Block 469.

13 Gustav and Ike, Katrina and Rita: life is slowly returning to Gulf of Mexico platforms and rigs, but production still lags. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) is reporting that offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico are busy reboarding platforms and restoring production following 2008 hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Onshore operations including corporate offices, homes and refining and pipeline operations seemed to take more of a beating than the offshore: some South Texas residents did not have power restored until late October.
From the operators’ reports, an estimated 43% of oil production and about 38% of natural gas production in the Gulf is shut-in. Production from the Gulf of Mexico accounts for 25% of U.S.-produced oil, and 15% of U.S.-produced natural gas.?
In 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed about 100 rigs; in 2008, Ike and Gustav wrecked about 49 rigs.

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