Yemen has been a fruitful area for a number of international operators, and several new exploration, development and infrastructure projects have been announced. On the exploration front, Korea National Oil Corp. has signed a production agreement with Yemen to operate and develop Block 4. The block lies in the Shabwa province and has an estimated 135 million barrels of oil in place. KNOC was recently awarded Block 39, and signed an agreement for Block 70 earlier this year. A large development project is being kicked off as well by Calgary-based Calvalley Petroleum, which is operator and has 50% working interest in Block 9. Calvalley has received Yemeni approval to bring its Al Roidhat, Auqban, Hiswah, Qarn Qaymah and Ras Noor discoveries online. Calvalley and its joint-venture partners are retaining about 63% of the 3,546-square-kilometer tract that was held under the exploration phase. Initial development will be focused on Hiswah, Calvalley's first discovery in Yemen. The company will drill at least four more wells in the field this year, and start construction of a central processing facility. Hiswah will eventually support 25 wells. And, a 200-mile, 38-inch pipeline is under way by Total SA from the town of Marib to a liquefied natural gas terminal that is under construction in the Gulf of Aden. 1 Canada Calgary-based CanWest Petroleum Corp. has purchased the 23,040-acre Eagle Nest prospect, in T101N-R13W, 4th Meridian, in Alberta's Athabasca oil-sands region. The company plans to drill approximately 12 exploratory wells this winter, at a cost of $2 million. Previous wells indicate the McMurray formation contains net bitumen pay of 14 meters at a depth of about 550 meters. 2 Venezuela PDVSA awarded 49% of the 500-sq.-kilometer Junin 7 heavy-oil exploratory block in the Orinoco Basin to Repsol YPF. In developing the property with PDVSA, which retains 51%, Repsol plans to increase its production from Venezuela to 160,000 bbl. of oil per day, up about 60% from the current rate. 3 Peru Peru has awarded E&P rights to Petrolifera Petroleum del Peru SAC for Block 107 in the central jungle. Block 107 is in the Ucayali Basin northwest of the giant Camisea Field, and covers approximately 3 million acres. The company also recently signed for Block 106 in the Maranon Basin in the northern part of the country. Block 106 surrounds Corrientes Field, the largest in that basin. The combined blocks give Petrolifera, which is a 40% affiliate of Canadian firm Connacher Oil & Gas Ltd., some 5 million acres. 4 Brazil Calgary-based EnCana Corp. has made a promising oil discovery in the Campos Basin, about 75 kilometers offshore Brazil. During a three-day production test, the 3-ENC-3-RJS exploration well flowed at rates up to 1,800 bbl. of 14-degree-gravity oil per day, and the rates were limited by the capacity of the test equipment. The well, EnCana's third test in the BM-C-7 prospect, encountered about 34 meters of net pay. It was drilled about four kilometers from the first well, drilled in April 2004. A fourth well is planned to further delineate the field, which EnCana is calling Chinook. Block BM-C-7 is in the southwest Campos Basin in water depths of 100 meters. EnCana is operator and holds a 50% interest in the block; Kerr McGee Corp. holds the balance. 5 Norway Norsk Hydro brought in a couple of discoveries on the Norwegian side of the North Sea at its Peon prospect. It made a gas discovery in Block 35/2-1 in 384 meters of water. It reached a total depth of 688 meters in Pliocene sands, and was the shallowest exploration well ever drilled off Norway. The Norwegian company's second discovery was made beneath currently producing zones near the Troll platform. The test was drilled in 341 meters of water to a depth of 2,055 meters, and discovered production in the Brent formation, some 500 meters below current field output. 6 France Dallas independent Toreador Resources Corp. successfully tested two horizontal wells in Charmottes Field in the Paris Basin. The Charmottes-108H and Charmottes-110H horizontal wells are anticipated to be capable of producing 600 bbl. of oil per day. Toreador is building a drilling pad on the southeast flank of the property to drill at least one, and up to six, wells from the same surface location. It also plans a vertical well to prove up probable reserves in the Triassic Donnemarie zone. Since its discovery in 1984, Charmottes Field has produced about 1 million bbl. of oil. Toreador has a 100% interest in the field. 7 Gabon Sterling Energy has signed up for new acreage offshore Gabon and is preparing for its second well off the coast after the first was plugged and abandoned. The U.K. independent has signed a technical evaluation agreement for the Ibekelia license. The agreement covers a 673-sq.-kilometer area, which is contiguous with the Gamba and Olowi oil fields and Sterling's existing Themis Marin and Iris Marin licenses. The evaluation term is 12 months, at the end of which there is an option to convert to a full production-sharing agreement. Sterling's first operated well in Africa-the Iboga Marin-1 well on the Iris Marin block-was disappointing. It reached a depth of 2,035 meters and penetrated more than 30 meters of reservoir, but was water-bearing. A further exploration well is scheduled in the Themis Marin license for the first quarter of 2006. 8 Namibia Irish firm Tullow Oil has settled on a technologically challenging subsea-to-shore development concept for its 1-trillion-cu.-ft. Kudu gas field offshore Namibia. A subsea development will entail a subsea-to-shore tieback of some 180 kilometers, a potential record-breaker in terms of distance. The company is working on a gas-to-power-generation project, including technical preparations, commercial and regulatory arrangements, and negotiations on gas-sales agreements. The first phase of development is expected onstream in 2009 at an initial rate of 130 million cu. ft. per day, which will supply an 800-megawatt power plant at Oranjemund in Namibia. The environmental impact assessment study for the upstream development has also been approved by the Ministry of Mines and Energy. 9 Oman Irish oil company Circle Oil and Sweden's GetOil have been awarded two new exploration blocks by Oman. Circle won deepwater Block 52, which lies in the sultanate's waters close to the border with Yemen. The company will carry out reprocessing and re-interpretation of existing data available on the acreage, as well as shoot a 6,000-kilometer 2-D survey during an initial three-year exploration phase. It already holds Block 49. Block 52 covers 100,000 sq. kilometers and only shallow-water wells have been drilled on it so far. Circle says it will focus its exploration efforts on the virgin deepwater areas. It will spend $18 million during the full six-year period of its agreement. GetOil, meanwhile, will operate onshore Block 15 with Denmark's Odin Energy. The two companies will spend $11 million during a six-year period exploring the block, which covers 1,389 sq. kilometers. 10 Syria Houston independent Gulfsands Petroleum first increased its interest in Block 26, in northeast Syria, by purchasing Devon Energy's 80% stake in the acreage, then farmed out a 50% interest in the block to SoyuzNefteGas, a private Russian firm. Gulfsands is now operator of Block 26 and holds a 50% working interest. It has commenced the acquisition of 1,170 kilometers of 2-D seismic, and expects to drill the first exploration well in the block early next year. Gulfsands says it has identified some 27 leads and prospects with aggregated potential exceeding 1 billion bbl. of recoverable oil reserves. 11 India Reliance Industries Ltd. said it discovered some 3.75 trillion cu. ft. of gas in place in coal seams in Madhya Pradesh in central India. The company said it wouldn't be able to determine reserves without additional drilling, and it plans another 12 wells on its blocks in the area. The seams are in the Sohagpur coalbed-methane blocks in Shahdol District. Although Reliance has made large discoveries off India's East Coast, this is its first coalbed-methane success. 12 Australia Woodside Energy is planning a $3.07- to $3.84-billion LNG project for its Pluto Field offshore Western Australia. Pluto was discovered by Woodside in April on permit WA-350-P, around 190 kilometers northwest of Karratha and 90 kilometers west of the Woodside-operated Goodwyn production platform on the North West Shelf. Woodside holds a 100% stake in the acreage. With a final investment decision planned for mid-2007, LNG shipments could begin in late 2010. Development options include an offshore production platform, an offshore trunkline, up to two LNG processing trains, a loading jetty and associated infrastructure. 13 New Zealand Houston-based Swift Energy Co. reports that its Piakau North A-1 well in New Zealand is undergoing a long-term production test. The well was drilled to a depth of 9,623 ft. during third-quarter 2005, and encountered 72 ft. of net pay in an Eocene sandstone. The well has tested at rates up to 7 million cu. ft. of gas and 400 bbl. of condensate per day on a 28/64-in. choke. The gas contained approximately 13% carbon dioxide. At present, production from the well is being blended with other natural gas from the area to meet pipeline specifications. The company is drilling a delineation well on the prospect, which it owns 100%.