Another high-volume oil well has been brought in offshore Vietnam, this one productive from Miocene clastic reservoirs. The Hai Su Trang wildcat tested at 14,863 barrels of oil per day through a 2-in. choke for Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. The Block 15-2/01 well lies on trend with several other large discoveries in the prolific Cuu Long Basin, a Tertiary rift basin some 80 kilometers off the country's southeastern coast.

The 3,321-meter well found an 82-meter hydrocarbon interval in Lower Miocene with about 52 meters of net pay. The discovery is on a separate fault block and updip to the Te Giac Trang discovery made in 2005 on Block 16-1. That well was productive from Lower Bach Ho reservoirs at depths between 2,701-2,760 meters. Block 16-1 owners are PetroVietnam, Soco International, PTTEP and Opeco Inc.

A sidetrack is now in progress to penetrate the Te Giac Trang structure to determine how much of that accumulation extends onto Block 15-2/01. Plans are to follow this sidetrack with an appraisal sidetrack on the Hai Su Trang structure. Talisman holds a 60% working interest in any commercial discoveries on Block 15-2/01 and PetroVietnam holds the balance.-Peggy Williams



1 VenezuelaCanada-based PetroFalcon Corp. subsidiary Vinccler Oil & Gas confirmed multiple oil and gas zones in its LV-12 development well drilled by its 40%-owned PetroCumarebo joint venture. The well is on the company's La Vela Field on East Falcon Block in Falcon state. PetroCumarebo drilled the well to 966 meters and found oil and gas 40 meters high to the same zones in the LV-10 discovery well for the field. The well encountered 41 meters of net hydrocarbon sands in the Caularao and Socorro formations, with the most prospective in the Socorro between 747 and 788 meters.

2 ColombiaColombia will put 27 blocks off the Caribbean coast on auction in the third quarter in an attempt to open the large gas resources in the area. Among companies that have shown interest in the blocks are Ecopetrol, Petrobras, BP, ENI, Pluspetrol, Sino­pec, Reliance Energy, Hess, Anadarko Petroleum and Hunt Oil, according to a Dow Jones report. Colombia wants to find 50 million bbl. of new oil a year to remain an exporting country. Both production and reserves increased last year.

3 PeruThe Hunt Oil Co.-led consortium officially launched Peru's largest industry project as it started work on the $3.8-billion Peru LNG project. A $1.5-billion plant will be built about 170 kilometers south of Lima in Pampa Machorita. Dallas-based Hunt's partners are South Korea's SK Corp. and Spain's Repsol YPF. Natural gas for the plant will come from Pagoreni Field. LNG shipments should begin in the first half of 2010. The plant will put out 4.45 million tons of LNG annually.

4 BrazilPetrobras declared 19 areas commercially viable in the Campos, Espirito Santo and Santos basins of Brazil in a single mass filing. The filing represents some 2.1 billion bbl. of oil equivalent, net to Petrobras, in new reserves. In the Espirito Santo Basin, the company will annex four new fields into Golfinho and Canapú fields. In the same basin, the company registered three onshore areas as commercial. It added Carapiá, Pirapitanga and Tambuatá fields in Block BS-500 in the Santos Basin and merged another new field in the same basin into existing production at Mexilhaõ in Block BS-400. In the Campos Basin, Brazil's most prolific production area, it added production in blocks BC-20, BC-30 and BC-60.

5 IrelandAs soon as Ireland settles on new licensing terms this year, it plans to offer new deepwater tracts to bidders in the Porcupine Basin off the southwestern coast. Current plans call for bidding to open in May and close in October as companies get an opportunity to bid on a maximum of three blocks in the north of the basin and three blocks in the south. The big draw for the play is the Dunquin area, in which Providence Resources, Exxon­­Mobil and Sosina Exploration are looking for up to 5.5 trillion cu. ft. of gas and 850 million bbl. of liquids. Only five exploratory wells have been drilled in the Porcupine Basin to date.

6 NorwayItaly's ENI completed another wildcat on its Goliat discovery in PL 229 in the Barents Sea. This well, 7122/7-5, and its companion sidetrack, 7122/7-5a, split prospects with the main wellbore testing Goliat West and the sidetrack evaluating the discovery structure. The field is some 50 kilometers southeast of Snohvit and 85 kilometers northwest of Hammerfest. The sidetrack proved up an oil column in Kobbe and that resource will be added to the discovery well's reserve potential.

7 PortugalHardman Resources, 80% owner and operator and now part of London-based Tullow Oil Plc, took out three contracts for exploration and development from oil fields offshore Portugal. The company will explore the Gamba, Lavagante and Santola areas off the coast of Alentejo. Water depths in the area range from 200 to 3,000 meters. The company, with partners Galp Energia and Partex Oil & Gas, will acquire seismic data and drill wells during the eight-year exploratory period. If they prove up commercial quantities of oil and gas, they will sign a production contract, good for another 30 years.

8 TunisiaENI has successfully completed two exploration wells, Karma-1 in the Adam concession and Nakhil-1 in the Bordj el Kadra permit, in Tunisia's Sahara region. The Karma-1 was drilled to a total depth of 3,617 meters and tested more than 4,000 bbl. a day on a production test. Its partners in the well are Etap, Pioneer Natural Resources and Talisman Energy. Nakhil-1 was drilled to 3,929 meters and is currently producing 1,200 bbl. of oil per day. Pioneer and Talisman are partners with ENI in that venture as well.

9 AngolaChevron Corp. has made another significant oil discovery in deepwater Block 14, offshore Angola. Lucapa-1 was drilled in 1,201 meters of water to a total vertical depth of 3,340 meters and encountered more than 85 net meters of oil in Miocene reservoirs. Including Lucapa, 10 discoveries have been made in Block 14 in the last decade. Chevron's partners in the block are Sonangol, ENI, Total SA and Galp Energia.

10 OmanBP has taken a major gas deal in Oman that covers 2,800 sq. kilometers in the central part of the country. The deal includes Khazzan and Makarem fields, which were discovered in 1993 but have remained undeveloped due to complex tight-gas reservoirs. BP will conduct a multi-year appraisal program. First production is expected to begin around 2010. The fields and associated accumulations are estimated to contain 20- to 30 trillion cu. ft. of gas resources.

11 TurkeyDallas independent Toreador Resources Corp. continues its string of successes off Turkey's northeastern coast in the Black Sea as its wells produce healthy results. The company tested the shallowest of seven pay zones in its Akcakoca-3 for 20 million cu. ft. of gas per day from 25 meters of perforations between 1,167-94 meters true vertical depth. It tested the zone through a 48/64-in. choke with 1,360 psi of flowing pressure. The deepest zone in the well tested for 18 million cu. ft. per day. The company plans a dual completion. On a separate fault block, Toreador and partners TPAO and Stratic Energy Corp. tested the highest of three zones in Akcakoca-4 for 18.9 million cu. ft. per day through a 48/64-in. choke with 1,314 psi of flowing pressure. The deepest zone tested for 8.6 million a day. That well penetrated 37 meters of gas sand from 1,159 to 1,375 meters.

12 IndiaCanadian firm Niko Resources has confirmed that the latest well in Reliance Industries' prolific D-6 Block in the offshore Krishna-Godavari Basin has hit the thickest hydrocarbon column yet encountered on the block. The MA-2 well penetrated 194 meters of gross hydrocarbon column in Cretaceous sediments. The well was drilled to a depth of 3,581 meters about two kilometers from the MA-1 discovery well. Niko holds a 10% interest in D-6.In separate activity, Hardy Oil and Gas Plc posted an oil and gas discovery at a wildcat in the Cauvery Basin off the southern tip of India. It is the operator of Fan-A-1 in the CY-OS/2 Block and has 75% ownership. The company drilled the well to 4,089 meters and penetrated several Cretaceous zones that tested hydrocarbons with high pressure. An interval from 3,755 to 3,817 meters was perforated over nine meters and flowed oil and gas to the surface, but Hardy had to abort the test due to mechanical problems. The interval between 3,565-69 tested for 10 million cu. ft. of gas and 20 bbl. of condensate per day on a 52/64-in. choke.

13 BangladeshA drilling campaign is under way offshore Bangladesh as Scottish explorer Cairn Energy tests a 1-trillion-cu.-ft. prospect in Sangu Field. The company's first well is an appraisal on Sangu South Field, according to Ogilvie's E&P Daily. The second well will test an apparently undrained segment of Sangu Field. The third and last well in the series is a wildcat that will look for gas on a prospect some 10 kilometers northwest of Sangu. Production from the main Sangu Field started in 1988 and has reached a cumulative 400 billion cu. ft. of gas.

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