Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. has announced a successful deep well and two successful Triassic wells in the Monkman area of northeast British Columbia. The deep well is the company's second major find in the Monkman Paleozoic. Since April, the d-93-D/93-P-5 has produced at rates up to 33 million cubic feet per day, constrained by surface equipment. Early indications are that original gas-in-place volumes could be up to 100 billion cubic feet, Talisman reports. The company owns an 80% interest in the find, and Seneca Energy holds the remaining 20%. The discovery was drilled eight kilometers southeast of Talisman's b-60-e well, its first Paleozoic discovery in the region and the most prolific well drilled in the basin last year. That well is currently flowing 50 million cubic feet of gas per day. Meanwhile, the two shallower wells in the established Triassic play tested at gross rates of 30 million and 16 million cubic feet per day, respectively. Talisman owns a 33% interest in the former and 31% in the latter. 1 Canada Husky Energy Inc. and its partners have made a second discovery in the Central Mackenzie Valley of the Northwest Territories, reports Nickle's Petroleum Explorer. The Stewart D-57 well was drilled on Tulita District Land Corp. freehold block M-38 to a depth of 3,147 meters, cased to total depth and suspended. On open-hole testing, gas flowed from two Cretaceous intervals at a combined rate of 5 million cu. ft. per day. The hydrocarbon-bearing column is at least 50 meters thick, the company reports. The well is the first successful Cretaceous discovery in the Central Mackenzie region. Husky's partners in M-38 are Pogo Producing Co. subsidiary Northrock Resources, EOG Resources, Pacific Rodera Energy Inc. and International Frontier Resources Corp. 2 Peru PeruPetro, the state oil and gas agency, signed exploration and production contracts with three companies. Hess Corp., New York, picked up contracts on three blocks. Block 118 is between Loreto and San Martin departments, Block 199 is between Loreto and Ucayali departments, and Block 120, Loreto and Huanuco departments, according to Business News Americas. Gold Oil of the United Kingdom signed a contract for Block XXXI between Piura and Lambyeque departments. A contract for Block B-04 in the northern Maranon Basin went to a partnership of Loon Energy and Tusk Energy, both of Canada. 3 Brazil Oklahoma City-based Kerr-McGee Corp. plans a deepwater wildcat in its BM-C-30 block in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. The water depth at the site is 1,500 meters. The company's pre-drill estimates for the site range from 300- to 500 million bbl. of oil equivalent. Kerr-McGee is the operator with 30%, Devon Energy and EnCana Corp. each hold a fourth interest, and SK Corp. has the remaining 20%. After this well, the drillship will move to Block BM-C-32 to drill a deepwater well for Devon. 4 United Kingdom London-based The Peak Group broke new ground as it lined up four independent operators for its full-well management service in the North Sea. The program gives the independents the leverage of a larger company with a multi-well program. Antrim Energy will drill one well in Block 211/23b in the northern North Sea; Europa Oil & Gas will drill a well in Block 41/24; Serica Energy will drill two wells in blocks 54/1b and 48/16b in the southern North Sea; and Hurricane Exploration will drill its Wellington prospect west of the Shetland Islands. 5 Norway Stavanger, Norway-based Revus Energy plans to help develop marginal fields that previously were set aside by operators because of poor anticipated returns. The company will evaluate reopening Yme Field, which was abandoned in 2001 with only 18% of in-place oil produced. The operator is Talisman Energy, and Revus owns 20%. Another project is Fram B Field, which was discovered in 1987 but not developed. Norsk Hydro will be the operator with Revus as a 25% stakeholder. The most likely development plan involves a subsea tieback to Gjoa Field, which will begin producing in 2010. Revus also has a 78.1% stake with operator CNR in the Blamannen satellite to Murchison Field. The companies plan to drill the 33/9-6 well from the Murchison Field platform in the U.K. sector. In all, Revus plans to drill 14 wells offshore Norway between 2006-08 and has locked in a rig for the work. 6 Hungary Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd., Denver, has released information on the progress of its first three wells on its properties in southeastern Hungary. It drilled the Pusztaszer-1 well to 3,900 meters on the Tisza license on the flank of the Mako Trough. The well found moderate to good porosity in more than 100 meters of prospective section in the Szolnok and Endrod formations. At the Mako-6 well on the Mako license, the company drilled to 4,310 meters and encountered a gross interval of 900 meters in the Szolnok. Falcon will run intermediate casing and continue to drill to 6,000 meters to the Endrod formation. The company has also moved a drilling rig to the Szekkutas-1 location, on the eastern margin of the basin some 40 kilometers east of the Pusztaszer-1 well and 25 kilometers north of the Mako-6 well. 7 Ukraine Houston-based explorer Vanco International took the first deepwater license offered by Ukraine in the Black Sea. The Prykerchenska production-sharing agreement tender area is offshore the Crimea near the Kerch region in 500 to 2,000 meters of water. The northern part of the 12,900-sq.-kilometer area contains a Tertiary folded belt with prospective structures. The southern part of the block, in water deeper than 2,000 meters, contains the Tetyaev High and other large structural closures. Up to 15 companies had signed up for rights to bid on the single agreement. 8 Nigeria Nigeria's industry has been blighted by bad news in recent months because of the serious unrest in the Niger Delta, a series of high-profile and expensive dusters in the ultradeep water and a disorganized and unpopular licensing round. Now, in a rare piece of good news, ExxonMobil is already looking at development options after making a deepwater discovery in OPL 214. The Uge well was drilled in 1,263 meters of water to a total depth of 5,130 meters and encountered more than 100 meters of oil pay. In addition to ExxonMobil and state firm NPDC, stakeholders in OPL 214 are Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum and Sasol. Shell has also confirmed a deepwater discovery with a successful appraisal well. The Bonga North-2X was drilled in OML 118 in 1,019 meters of water and penetrated around 90 meters of hydrocarbon-bearing sands in several intervals. The company currently believes recoverable reserves in the field, which will be developed as a tie-back to the Bonga FPSO, are around 180 million barrels of oil. Shell's partners in the project are ExxonMobil, Agip and Total. 9 Syria Marathon Oil has signed a production-sharing agreement with Syria to develop two gas discoveries it made back in the 1980s. The PSA still needs regulatory approval from the Syrian authorities but will allow the company to develop Cheriffe and Shaer gas fields in the Palmyra region. For years, a dispute over development terms and gas prices has prevented any progress, but the resolution of the disagreement will see the two fields produce an expected 63.57 million cu. ft. of gas per day by 2008 or 2009. 10 Yemen DNO confirmed an oil discovery onshore Yemen, and extended another field in the same block. The Norway-based operator says the Godah-2 appraisal well in Block 32 was drilled approximately 1,100 meters northeast of Godah-1. The Godah-2 was production-tested from a 4-meter interval at a stabilized rate of 1,160 bbl. of oil and 117 million cu. ft. of gas per day. Godah lies approximately 14 kilometers east of Tasour Field. Also in Block 32, the Tasour-21 delineation well was drilled to a total depth of 1,996 meters and completed as a production well. The well encountered oil-bearing upper Qishn S-1A sands in a separate fault segment south of the field. The well was completed at an initial rate of 785 bbl. of oil and 2,355 bbl. of water per day. 11 China Canada's Husky Energy spudded the 4,100-meter Liwan 3-11 in Block 29/26 in the South China Sea in 1,500 meters of water. The company drilled a well nearby in Block 40/30, but that was dry. It plans two more wells on Block 29/26. If it makes a commercial discovery, it will retain a 49% interest and CNOOC Ltd. will back in for 51%. 12 China The Beibu Gulf area offshore southern China offered good news for Australian operator Roc Oil Co. The company encountered a 95-meter net hydrocarbon column in its Wei-6-12S-1 well in Block 22/12. Roc has started a three-week program to test at least three separate zones in the discovery. Roc's partners in Block 22/12 are Horizon Oil Ltd., Petsec Energy Ltd. and Oil Australia. 13 Australia Japan's Inpex is proposing to develop Ichthys gas/condensate field in Permit WA-285-P, offshore Western Australia. The project would consist of offshore facilities and a gas-condensate-processing and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on the Maret Islands. The company has started the formal environmental approval processes for the venture, which could begin production in mid-2012 at an initial rate of 6 million tonnes a year of LNG. Inpex holds a 100% stake and estimates the field's recoverable resources are 9.5 trillion cu. ft. of gas and 312 million bbl. of condensate.

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