Activity is brisk in Yemen, with a cadre of international operators enjoying success and new players entering the game. In the Sayun-Masila Basin, Norwegian firm DNO has completed a second appraisal well to its February 2004 discovery, Nabrajah-1, on Block 43. The 5,922-foot Nabrajah-3 encountered two hydrocarbon-bearing zones in the Qishn interval, the company reported. DNO, operator of Block 43, has submitted a field development plan for Nabrajah to the Yemeni authorities. DNO holds a 56.67% interest; Australian firm Oil Search, 28.33%; and The Yemen Co., 15%. The partners now plan Nabrajah-5 to further appraise the accumulation. In the Marib-Al Jawf Basin, Tulsa, Okla.-based Vintage Petroleum and Calgary-based TransGlobe Energy have drilled the An Nagyah-14 vertically to a total depth of 4,479 feet and encountered a 62-foot oil column in the Lower Lam sandstone. South of An Nagyah Field on a separate fault block, the well tested light oil at a rate of approximately 80 barrels per day. Now the partners plan to spud the Malaki-1 exploratory prospect on a separate structure some 5.5 miles southwest of An Nagyah Field. Vintage operates Block S-1 and owns a 75% interest; TransGlobe owns 25%. Additionally, the government of Yemen recently signed two E&P agreements with Sinopec in the Sabatain Basin, Shabwa province, and in the Masila Basin, Hadramout province. -Peggy Williams 1 Canada Shell Canada encountered 140 meters of net pay at its Tay River Ricinius W 2-6-37-10-W5 wildcat, some 30 kilometers southwest of Rocky Mountain House in the Alberta Foothills. The 5,100-meter well tested at a restricted rate of 30 million cu. ft. of gas per day through tubing. The feature could contain as much as 800 billion cu. ft. of raw gas in place, Shell Canada said, but the gas is about 60% methane and 35% hydrogen sulfide. Shell will now drill appraisal wells to confirm its initial estimates. The company anticipates first production by midyear. 2 Colombia Australia's BHP Billiton has applied for a technical evaluation agreement for a large block in the Caribbean Sea from Colombia's oil and gas regulatory agency. The 6,000-square-mile block is in water of 50 to 2,700 meters and is adjacent to Tayrona Block. ExxonMobil, Petrobras and Ecopetrol are partners in Tayrona, which runs offshore roughly from Cartagena to northern La Guajira. 3 Ireland An international group headed by operator Lundin Exploration BV plans to drill a prospect in 320 ft. of water on the Atlantic margin, off the northwest coast of Ireland. The group's area of interest includes Frontier License 1/05, which covers Block 13/7 and parts of blocks 13/11(NE) and 13/12(N). The primary objective is Triassic Sherwood Sand draped over anticlines. The largest structure, Inishbeg, has potential for reserves similar to those being developed at Corrib Field, also offshore Ireland. Lundin's partners in the venture are Ramco Donegal Ltd., Island Oil & Gas Plc, Petroceltic International Plc and Sunningdale Donegal Basin Ltd. 4 Norway Statoil has started development drilling at its giant Snohvit Field in the Barents Sea. The initial phase of the program consists of 10 wells that will be drilled during the next year. The first well, the F-2H, is scheduled to 2,900 meters and will be used to inject carbon dioxide produced from the field. The full project will have 20 producing wells plus the injection well. The second phase will start in 2011 and the third in 2014. 5 Egypt Calgary-based operator Centurion Energy International Inc. flow-tested its El Wastani East-2 from three intervals at a combined rate of 41 million cu. ft. of gas and 900 bbl. of condensate per day. The rates were constrained by the capacity of the surface equipment, the operator said. The well will be completed for production from the Upper Abu Madi zone. 6 Algeria Calgary-based First Calgary Petroleums Ltd. has successfully tested two exploratory wells on its Ledjmet Block 405b, where it has 100% interest, in the Berkine Basin. The MZLS-1 encountered 51 meters of net pay and flowed 72.6 million cu. ft. of gas and 7,321 bbl. of condensate per day during testing of multiple Siegenian formation intervals. The LEW-1, seven kilometers northwest of the MZLS-1, tested at the rate of 13.6 million cu. ft. of gas and 7,536 bbl. of oil per day, also from intervals in Siegenian. Additionally, FCP has reached total depth on its LES-2 appraisal well, drilled to assess its LES-1 discovery. The 4,440-meter appraisal encountered 37 meters of net hydrocarbon pay in several intervals and testing is under way. As of October 2004, the company has discovered gross proved, probable and possible recoverable reserves totaling an astonishing 13.5 trillion cu. ft. of gas equivalent on its Ledjmet 405b and Rhourde Yacoub 406a blocks in Algeria, according to a recently released reserve report prepared by DeGolyer & MacNaughton. 7 Iran An international joint venture headed by Austria's OMV has made its first oil discovery onshore Iran, in Khuzestan province in the western Zagros region. The 4,148-meter well, drilled in the Mehr exploration block, flowed 1,040 bbl. of 22-degree-gravity oil per day, reported Ogilvie's E&P Daily. OMV operates the 2,500-square-kilometer block and holds a 34% interest; Spanish firm Repsol YPF, 33%; and Chile's Sipetrol, 33%. The partners are planning two delineation wells in the block later this year to define the size of the field. 8 Russia Shell and the Evikhon subsidiary of Sibir Energy, partners in the Salym Petroleum Development joint venture, will spend $278 million in 2005 on development of the Salym group of fields in western Siberia, West Salym, Upper Salym and Vadelyp. Most of the money will go into an early development program for West Salym, the largest of the three fields. The partners have already built a 31-mile road connecting the fields, the first well pad, and production and camp buildings. They also have started the production facility, which is designed to handle almost 44 million bbl. of oil a year. Commercial production is planned in the fourth quarter of 2005. 9 Mongolia Storm Cat Energy Corp., Calgary, has taken an exploration contract in the South Gobi region, near the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. The company plans to explore Tsaidam Block for coalbed methane. The license covers more than 5.5 million acres, and about 9% of that property lies over mapped coal deposits. Under the contract, the company will spend $300,000 this year on exploration, including drilling at least three wells. 10 India State-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. is starting a major exploration program off India's East Coast. The program will focus on two offshore blocks in the south Sunderbans area, one onshore block in Contai District, West Bengal, and three blocks in the Mahanadi Basin. ONGC will drill four wells in its shallow-water Sunderbans program, and it will drill the Gobinpur-1 in the Contai District in June. ONGC set up its exploration program with high-resolution, 3-D seismic. 11 Philippines Interest is up in oil and gas exploration in the Philippines, following a recent decision by its Supreme Court that allows foreign firms to own exploration concessions. Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. has been awarded a concession in the Tanon Strait, part of the Negros Occidental province, and South Sea Petroleum Holdings, Hong Kong, has received a block in the Agusan-Davao Basin in the Davao province. Additionally, Petronas Carigali and Philippines National Oil Co. were awarded the offshore Mindoro block. Malaysia's Petronas will have an 80% interest and operate the block; PNOC, 20%. 12 Australia Woodside Petroleum has decided to shelve its Sunrise LNG project in the Timor Sea. Woodside has a 35% interest, but problems in establishing the boundaries between Australia and Timor Leste have delayed development work. Instead, Woodside plans to proceed with development of its gas fields in the Browse Basin, offshore Western Australia. There, the company has its Brecknock, Brecknock South and Scott Reef discoveries in the WA-275-P and WA-33-P concessions. At present, first LNG production from the Browse Basin fields, which contain some 20 trillion cu. ft. of gas, is to begin in 2011. In a separate development, ChevronTexaco is proceeding with its plans to develop a large LNG development in permits WA-267-P and WA-18-R in the Carnarvon Basin, also offshore Western Australia. The company's Greater Gorgon Project encompasses 12 fields, including Gorgon and Jansz, and contains 40 trillion cu. ft. of gas. First production is projected for 2009 or 2010. ExxonMobil is a partner.