State oil company Ecopetrol has signed two new association contracts with foreign operators working in Colombia, and both sides appear pleased with the terms. An agreement with BP Amoco revised the Piedemonte contract, first signed in the early 1990s. Under the new Niscota contract, 76% of the original Piedemonte area reverts to Ecopetrol, but BP Amoco will have a 50% share of both initial costs and output. After cost recovery, Ecopetrol's share will gradually rise to a cap of 75%. The 63,000-hectare area covered by the contract is in Boyaca and Casanares provinces; the Nicosta exploration project could potentially contain 900 million barrels of reserves. BP Amoco has not pursued any exploration in the area for the last three years while it was renegotiating its contract. Ecopetrol notes that the original Piedemonte contract remains in force for the previously discovered Florena, Pauto and Volcanera fields. Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s new Siriri contract was revised along the same lines. Siriri includes the Gibraltar area and replaces the previous Samore Association contract. Oxy has returned 75% of the original block to Ecopetrol, but it also receives a more favorable royalty arrangement. The Siriri contract covers 47,000 hectares in Boyaca and Norte de Santander provinces; Oxy has estimated that the Gibraltar area contains potential reserves of 1.4 billion barrels of oil. -by Peggy Williams 1 Canada Calgary-based PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. says that it has made a natural gas discovery offshore Nova Scotia beneath Panuke Field. The Panuke P-3C intersected more than 230 ft. of net pay and flowed 55 million cu. ft. a day during a four-day test in April 1999. The Panuke I-1B encountered more than 100 ft. of net pay and flowed 52 million cu. ft. a day during a six-day test in January 2000. The field lies about 250 kilometers southeast of Halifax. PanCanadian holds a 100% working interest in both wells; the company holds 2.5 million net acres on the Scotian Shelf and adjacent deep waters. 2 Argentina Dallas independent Pioneer Natural Resources Co. reports both exploration and development successes. The company's first well on the Neuquen Basin acreage it acquired last year was a discovery. The Borde Colorado 1006 is flowing 450 bbl. of oil per day at a depth of approximately 1,500 meters. The well, in which Pioneer owns a 100% working interest, is in the Al Sur de la Dorsal Block. Also, in the Huincul Block, Pioneer has tested 320 bbl. of oil per day and 400,000 cu. ft. of gas from one development well, and 1.2 million cu. ft. of gas and 140 bbl. of oil per day from another. The company plans to drill more than 60 wells in Argentina this year. 3 U.K. North Sea Kerr-McGee Corp., Oklahoma City, says that it has drilled an oil discovery and two successful appraisal wells at its Leadon prospect on blocks 9/14a and 9/14b in the U.K. North Sea. The 5,462-ft. discovery well encountered 145 ft. of net pay; the appraisal wells encountered 130 ft. and 150 ft. of net pay, respectively. Reserves at Leadon, located some 15 miles north of Kerr-McGee's Gryphon Field, are between 70- and 100 million bbl. of oil equivalent. The company has a 100% interest in the prospect. 4 Angola Chevron Corp. has successfully completed two appraisal wells in Benguela and Belize fields in its deepwater Block 14. The Benguela 2A and Belize 2A wells flowed at rates of 8,400 and 11,000 bbl. of oil per day, respectively. Both wells were tested on restrictive chokes from Miocene sands. Benguela and Belize fields are approximately 4 kilometers south of Kuito Field, also in Block 14. Chevron currently produces about 50,000 bbl. of oil per day from Kuito, the first producing field in Angola's deepwater trend. Chevron operates Block 14 and holds a 31% interest; Sonangol, Agip Angola and TotalFina Angola own 20% interests apiece; and Petrogal holds the remaining 9%. 5 Mozambique South African firm Sasol Ltd. has acquired Arco's 47% interest in giant onshore Temane Field. The company also purchased a 4.8% interest held by Zarara Oil & Gas, bringing its stake in the project to 100%. Sasol also plans to build a 900-kilometer natural gas pipeline from Temane to Secunda, South Africa. Additionally, the company has increased its interests in the nearly M10 and Sofala offshore exploration blocks to 100% and 90%, respectively. 6 Israel Ardmore, Oklahoma-based Noble Affiliates reports that its Samedan Mediterranean Sea unit has made another discovery at its Mari-B #1 well about 15 miles off the Israeli coast. The well was drilled in 795 ft. of water to 6,830 ft. total depth and logged about 550 ft. of gas in one zone. The company perforated 89 ft. of the zone and tested gas at the rate of 33 million cu. ft. of gas a day through a 48/64-in. choke. Noble says that the well should be capable of producing in excess of 100 million cu. ft. of gas per day. The Mari-B #1 discovery is a follow-up to the Noa #1 discovery located 8 miles west. Samedan operates the well and owns a 40% working interest; Avner Oil Exploration L.P. holds 21.39%; Delek Drilling L.P., 23.61%; and RB Mediterranean Ltd., a unit of R&B Falcon Corp., owns 15%. 7 Syria Conoco Inc. and TotalFina-Elf have awarded a $160-million contract to Kvaerner U.S. Inc. for construction of a natural gas project in the eastern desert. Working under a service contract with the Syrian Petroleum Co., the firms will gather, process and transport associated gas from oil fields around the city of Deir Ez Zor. Overall cost of the project is estimated at $430 million, says Conoco. The companies are 50/50 partners in the Deir Ez Zor project. 8 Qatar TotalFina-Elf and Agip Qatar Petroleum have agreed to develop Alkhalij field on Block 6 offshore Qatar. The field is located in 193 ft. of water and has been producing since 1997. The $200-million development project will focus on the eastern portion of the field, increasing production capacity from 30,000 bbl. to 60,000 bbl. per day. The project calls for two production platforms and an injection platform, processing facilities and pipelines. The partners anticipate drilling 9 producing wells and 4 injection wells; they also plan an appraisal well in the northern portion of the field. 9 United Arab Emirates TotalFina-Elf and Enron Corp. have become strategic partners with the United Arab Emirates Offsets Group in the Dolphin gas project, intended to link Qatar, UAE and Oman in a regional gas network. The first phase of Dolphin calls for delivering 3 billion cu. ft. of gas per day from Qatar to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman. Estimated completion date for this phase is early 2003; costs are expected to be in the $4-billion range. UOG will hold a 51% interest, and TotalFina-Elf and Enron will hold 24.5% each. 10 Malaysia Petronas Carigali and Triton Energy Ltd. signed an $800-million contract for the development of the Cakerawala natural gas field, the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority said. The project will be the first gas development in the joint development area. The companies plan to begin producing gas in mid-2002 at Cakerawala, located in Block A-18 in the Gulf of Thailand. The field will be developed with three wellhead platforms, a riser and compression platform, and a floating storage and offloading vessel. The companies have already signed an agreement to deliver 390 million cu. ft. of gas per day for a 20-year period. 11 Timor Gap Phillips Petroleum Co. says that the Joint Authority for the Timor Gap Zone of Cooperation (ZOCA) has approved its development plan for a gas recycle project at Bayu-Undan Field. Bayu-Undan contains estimated reserves of 400 million bbl. of condensate and liquids and 3.4 trillion cu. ft. of natural gas. The field lies in 80 meters of water in contracts 91-12 and 91-13 in Area A of the ZOCA between East Timor and Australia, about 500 kilometers northwest of Darwin. The $1.4-billion project will produce and process wet gas; separate and store the liquids; and reinject the stripped gas back into the reservoir. First production is expected in 2003. Phillips operates the project and holds a 50.3% interest; Santos Ltd. holds 11.8%; Inpex, 11.7%; Kerr-McGee Corp., 11.2%; Petroz, 8.3%; and British-Borneo, 6.7%. 12 Australia Santos Ltd. has acquired interests in Barrow Island and the Thevenard Island fields in the Carnarvon Basin from Shell Development (Australia) Pty Ltd. The A$240-million transaction includes a 2/7ths interest in the Barrow Island joint venture; a 25/70ths interest in the Thevenard Island joint venture; various interests in exploration acreage associated with Barrow Island and Thevenard island; and a 2/7ths interest in exploration permit WA-213-P. Santos estimates that the proved and probable reserves in the deal are 43 million bbl. of oil equivalent (BOE). Barrow Island Field currently produces 12,000 bbl. of oil per day. The Thevenard Island complex-seven gas fields in shallow waters-produces about 20,000 BOEs per day. 13 New Zealand Houston-based Swift Energy Co. says the Rimu discovery well, about 185 miles southwest of Auckland, has flow-tested 1,527 bbl. of oil and about 5 million cu. ft. of gas per day. The company says that the partners in the exploration project believe they have only intersected the edge of the field and that the nearby Kauri structure, which is partially offshore, could contain between 200- and 500 million bbl. of oil. The company plans another two wells in Rimu Field this year, followed by a test well in the adjacent Kauri prospect. Swift holds a 90% interest in Petroleum Exploration Permit 38719, while Calgary-based Antrim Oil and Gas Ltd. and a subsidiary of Brisbane-based Bligh Oil & Minerals Ltd. both hold 5% interests.

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