Petrobras Set to Invest $1 Billion in Ecuador

By Wertheim, Peter Howard

Brazil’s state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) and Ecuador’s state oil firm Petroecuador signed a memorandum of understanding Apr. S to develop Ecuador’s Ishpingo-Tiputini- Tambococha oil fields in the Amazon region.

This area of fields already has five discoveries with a potential output of 190,000 b/d of oil that could double after 4 years of exploration.

The fields are in the remote easternmost Oriente Province in Ecuador’sYasuni National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (see map, OGJJuIy 10, 1995, p. 32). They hold nearly 1 billion bbl of crude reserves, said Ecuador’s President Rafal Correa in Brazil during a visit to Brazil’s President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva. With the MOU, Petrobras joins a consortium of Chile’s state-owned oil company Empresa Nacional del Petroleo (ENAP) and a unit of China’s stateowned Sinopec.

They signed the MOU committing to present an exploration program to Ecuador in the next few months with concrete proposals for protecting the region’s highly vulnerable ecosystem.

Tshpingo has 16 gravity oil in Cretaceous Hollin.Tiputini is a 1970 discovery that contains 18 gravity oil. Tambococha also dates to the early 1970s, as does Petrobras’s interest in operating in the area.

Lula said Brazil will invest $ 1 billion in oil and gas exploration and biofuels projects in Ecuador until 2010. The two countries also signed agreements to jointly produce biofuels and ethanol in Ecuador using Brazilian technology.

Brazil is the world’s number one sugar producer and exporter, and the leading exporter of ethanol made from sugarcane. It also is the world’s second-largest ethanol producer after the US and is ramping up production of soybean-based biodiesel.

Correa said Ecuador will return as a member of OPEC, although he didn’t say when. Ecuador was a member until the 1990s, when it failed to meet its export quotas.

Barbados

Barbados plans to launch an offshore oil and gas licensing round with promotional meetings June 1 in Bridgetown and June 8 in Houston.

Barbados National Oil Co. produces more than 1,000 b/d of oil from fields on the island, which is refined in Trinidad and Tobago, but the country has no offshore E&P activity.

The energy and environment ministry intends to publish bidding procedures in September and will invite bid submissions to be made in October or November.

Iraq

A group led by Petoil of Turkey reachedTD of 11,007 ft at the Bina-Bawi-1 exploratory well in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region and awaits material and testing equipment.

The group plans to test at least three zones, said partner Calibre Energy Inc., Washington, DC. It also plans to drill the Bina- Bawi-2 appraisal well to test prospective intervals in the Upper Cretaceous. Bina-Bawi-1 recovered oil from Upper Cretaceous at 1,800- 2,460 ft during a fishing job earlier this year.

The well is on the 3 O by 10 km Bana-Bavu structure on an exploration and production sharing contract area of the same name in the northern Zagros fold belt 45 miles north of supergiant Kirkuk oil field. Objectives on the structure are in formations of Triassic, Jurassic, and Lower Cretaceous age.

Mali

Mali’s Authority for the Promotion of Oil Research in Mali (AUREP) formally approved transfer of operatorship of blocks 1, 2, 3,4, and 9 in the Taoudeni basin to Eni SpA from Baraka Petroleum Ltd., Perth.

The proposed work program calls for magnetics and gravity interpretation studies, seismic feasibility studies, and the start of a 4,000 line-km 2D seismic survey in late 2007. The five blocks total 193,200 sqkm.

Interests are Eni 50% and Sonatrach International Petroleum Exploration Si Production BVI 25%. Baraka retains 18.75% participating interest, will recoup past costs, and is carried for up to $10 million starting Apr. 28, 2007.

Niger

CNPC International Tenere Ltd. spudded the Fachi West-1 exploration well on the 17.3 million acre Tenere Block in Niger.

The drill site is 2 7 km north of Saha1, where one formation tested noncommercial oil and a second interval was tight.

The well established the existence of a working hydrocarbon system on the block, said 20% interest holder TG World Energy Corp., Calgary. It found reservoir sandstones in the primary objective Sokor and Madama formations and sandstones in the Donga formation.

Once Saha-1 is drilled, the operator plans to rerisk the existing prospect inventory and choose a third exploration drillsite.

Meanwhile, CNPCIT is acquiring a seismic survey on the adjacent Bilma concession, where TG World does not hold an interest. Afterward, the crew will acquire 700 line-km of 2D seismic surveys onTenere.

Saskatchewan

Petrobank Energy & Resources Ltd., Calgary, expanded its holding in the Southeast Saskatchewan Bakken oil play to 116,163 net acres in the Williston basin.

The company’s first four 100%-interest Bakken wells went on production at 200-250 b/d and on average have produced more than 12,000 bbl in the first 3 months, and the next four wells had similar results.

The company drilled in early 2007 but did not place on production for competitive reasons a series of exploration wells to determine the play’s boundaries prior to a provincial land sale.

Two rigs are drilling, and two are to be added in the third quarter to pursue a goal of drilling 60 wells by the end of 2007.

North Dakota

A dual lateral well in Mountrail County 18 miles north of EOG Resources Inc.’s Parshall area flowed 443 b/d of oil, 300 Mcfd of gas, and 187 b/d of load water from Bakken.

Drilled and completed by ConocoPhillips, the Nelson farms 11-19H well in 19-156n-91w is now operated by Prima Exploration Inc.

Cordillera Energy Partners, Prima, and partners hold 72% working interest in the well and control 56,000 net acres.

Oklahoma

Verden field in the Anadarko basin is averaging 57.8 MMcfd of gas from wells operated by Apache Corp., Houston.

The company’s most recent completion, West 8-14 in Caddo County, cut 380 ft of gas pay and gauged 5.3 MMcfd of gas and 5 b/d of condensate from the Middle Wamsley member of Pennsylvanian Springer perforated at 16,391-521 ft.

Verden field, discovered in 1976, has produced 593 bcf of gas and 5.1 million bbl of oil. Apache has drilled 88 wells there since 1993.

West 8-14 is the eighth well drilled in this 640-acre unit. The ninth well is drilling. Apache operates the unit with a 56% working interest. It is indicative of the downspacing opportunities afforded by reservoir compartmentalization in Verden field, where Apache has four rigs running.

Texas

Gulf Coast

ECA Holdings LP, private Denver independent, plans continuous horizontal development of Brazos Belle field in Fort Bend County, Tex., where a recent completion set depth and temperature records for the field.

IP at the Foster Farms Deep-1 was 7.49 MMcfd of gas and 199 b/d of condensate on a 15/64-in. choke with 8,590 psi FTP from Eocene Lower WiIcox Meek sand.

The well went to a field-record true vertical depth of 15,800 ft before ECA drilled the lateral. Measured total depth is 18,474 ft, and the lateral was drilled at what ECA believes is a record temperature of 350 F. The frac job carried 1 million lb. of bauxite proppant.

ECA has built location for another well to spud May 1 and plans to drill two further offsets in 2007.The company owns 100% interest in the first well and 12,000 net acres on the Brazos Belle structure.

Peter Howard Wertheim

OGJ Correspondent

Copyright PennWell Publishing Company Apr 16, 2007

(c) 2007 Oil & Gas Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.