BP has made its ninth discovery on Angola's deepwater Block 31. The Hebe-1 was drilled in 2,008 meters of water to a depth of 4,823 meters and tested at a maximum rate of 5,956 barrels of oil per day. The well is 16 kilometers southwest of the Ceres discovery made earlier this year. BP operates Block 31 and holds a 26.67% interest. Its partners are ExxonMobil, with 25%; Statoil, 13.33%; Marathon, 10%; and Total, 5%. Block 31 encompasses approximately 5,000 square kilometers in the Lower Congo Basin. Water depths are between 1,500 and 2,500 kilometers. Hebe may now be added to a project that will produce the Ceres, Palas, Astraea and Juno finds on the southeast portion of the block. The partners are also looking at a project for the northeast part of the block, encompassing the Plutao, Saturno, Marte and Venus discoveries. Angola currently produces about 1.2 million barrels of oil per day and ranks as the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1996, about 14 billion barrels of oil have been discovered in offshore blocks in Miocene and Oligocene turbidite sediments deposited by the Congo River. 1 Canada Husky Energy, operator of Exploration License 397, intends to drill two wells in 2006 on the Central Mackenzie Valley block in the Northwest Territories. The block contains the Summit Creek B-44 discovery, which was drilled in 2004 to a depth of 3,063 meters and encountered a 180-meter hydrocarbon column. This past spring, the well was tested at a combined rate of 20 million cu. ft. of gas and 6,000 bbl. of light oil and condensate per day from two perforated intervals. The discovery, which lies about 100 kilometers south of Norman Wells, was the first find made in the Central Mackenzie Valley since 1920. Husky assumed operatorship of the block earlier this year; its partners in EL 397 are Northrock Resources, EOG Resources, Pacific Rodera Energy Inc. and International Frontier Resources Corp. The group acquired 200 kilometers of 2-D seismic on the license this summer, and now plans to drill an appraisal well to the discovery and an exploration well on a separate undrilled prospect. Northrock, a subsidiary of Unocal Corp., drilled the Summit Creek discovery well. 2 Brazil Calgary-based EnCana Corp. and Oklahoma City-based Kerr-McGee Corp. have drilled a successful appraisal well to their Chinook discovery on their jointly held Block BM-C-7 in the southwestern part of the Campos Basin. The 3-ENC-3-RJS well tested oil at a rate of 1,800 bbl. per day from the Cretaceous Carapebus formation, limited by the capacity of the test equipment. EnCana's calculations show the well is capable of producing some 5,000 bbl. of oil per day. The appraisal, which was drilled about four kilometers southwest of the discovery, encountered about 34 meters of net pay. The partners plan another delineation well. The field offers potential resources between 100- and 200 million bbl. of oil. 3 Argentina Petro Andina Resources of Calgary will initiate a $12-million exploration and pilot waterflood program on its properties in the Neuquen Basin. The company has drilled eight shallow wells this year on the onshore CNQ-7A block in southern Mendoza province and plans up to 13 wells by year-end, according to Business News Americas. Petro Andina is the operator with a half-interest in the block shared with partner Repsol YPF. The Canadian company is acquiring additional properties in the basin. 4 U.K. Chevron Corp. played an active part in the 23rd U.K. Offshore Licensing Round as it picked up interests in blocks 205/2, 212/30, 213/16 and 213/17, all near the company's Rosebank/Lochnagar discovery some 126 kilometers west of Shetland. Chevron is operator on the blocks. The company also successfully bid on blocks 215/30, 216/27 and 216/27 near the Capercaille prospect west of Shetland and will be the operator on those blocks. Finally, it was top bidder for Block 13/22d in the Moray Firth south of the company's Captain field. The company may have to delay drilling plans on the Rosebank/Lochnagar discovery while it tries to find an available rig in the tight North Sea market. Reserve estimates for the discovery have gone as high as 500 million bbl. of oil. 5 U.K. Canada's Nexen Inc. chalked up a small discovery in Block 15/18b in the U.K. North Sea, about 350 kilometers northeast of Aberdeen. The 15/18b-11 wildcat was drilled on its Yeoman prospect and encountered 10 meters of gas pay and 16 meters of oil pay. During testing, the well flowed at rates up to 1,500 bbl. of oil equivalent per day. OMV, Paladin and Oilexco are Nexen's partners in the venture. 6 Norway Norsk Hydro came up with a discovery on its deepwater Stetind prospect in Production License 283 in the Norwegian Sea, which includes blocks 6605/5, 6605/7, 6605/8, 6605/9 and 6606/7. The wildcat was drilled in a very lightly explored area in 838 meters of water to Cretaceous sands at 4,490 meters. The company tested gas at a rate of 4.2 million cu. ft. of gas per day. It plans appraisal wells to assess the discovery's commercial potential. Hydro operates the find and owns a 30% interest. Its partners are Chevron, with 25%; ConocoPhillips, 25%; and Petoro, 20%. 7 Equatorial Guinea Houston firm Noble Energy reported successful test results from its O-1 exploration prospect on offshore Block O. The well, in 250 ft. of water and approximately 20 miles east of Bioko Island, was drilled to a total depth of 10,360 ft. During testing, the well produced at maximum flow rates of 24 million cu. ft. of gas and 1,225 bbl. of condensate per day. Flow rates were limited by surface test equipment. With the installation of cooling and processing facilities, condensate yields can be increased. The company says that it will perform appraisal work on the discovery. Noble Energy is the technical operator of Block O and holds a 45% participating interest; its partners are GEPetrol, with a 30% interest, and Glencore Exploration Ltd., 25%. 8 Madagascar U.K. independent Aminex has joined the growing list of companies taking acreage in Madagascar. Aminex, with partner Mocoh Resources, has been awarded the rights to Block 3108, known as Manja, onshore the west coast of Madagascar and covering an area of 10,725 sq. kilometers. Several wells have been drilled in the past on Manja, some of which found significant shows of oil and gas. The geology is analogous to the East Coast of Tanzania where Aminex holds the Nyuni acreage. The work commitment calls for seismic in an initial two-year period followed by exploration drilling in subsequent periods. A number of international oil and gas companies have become active in Madagascar recently, including ExxonMobil, Norsk Hydro, Vanco, Sterling Energy, Vuna Resources and SunPec. Madagascar will be holding a full licensing round next year. 9 Russia ExxonMobil Corp. started production from the Sakhalin-1 project off the east coast of Sakhalin Island, offshore eastern Russia. The project will produce 50,000 bbl. of oil per day by the end of this year and ramp up to 250,000 bbl. per day by the end of next year from Chayvo Field. Gas sales will start at 60 million cu. ft. per day and grow to 250 million per day by the end of 2010. 10 North Korea U.K. firm Aminex and its subsidiary Korex have entered a production-sharing agreement with North Korea to explore 66,000 sq. kilometers of onshore and offshore properties. Those properties include the offshore West Sea, part of the offshore East Sea, and the onshore Anju, Jaeryong and Pyongyang basins along the country's west coast. During the first three-year period, the company will collect new seismic to add to previous geologic and geophysical information and drill one well. 11 China China's CNOOC Ltd. has started production from its second phase of development on Bozhong Field in southeastern Bohai Bay, about 127 kilometers southeast of Long Kou City. The second phase is now producing more than 5,000 bbl. of oil per day from 17 wells; another 38 wells will be completed and production from the second phase will peak at 15,000 barrels per day. Wells in the first phase, which started production in 2004, are currently producing 20,000 bbl. per day. 12 China Royal Dutch Shell is close to signing a deal with China to develop that nation's largest shale-oil deposits in the province of Jilin. Under the proposal, Shell would receive a 61% share of the venture and spend $50 million in three years on exploration and assessment to determine if development is feasible, according to a Reuters report. If determined feasible, it could spend another $100 million on a field-development demonstration project using the in-situ heating technology it developed on shales in the Piceance Basin of Colorado. Whatever proceeding, it probably can't begin a commercial operation for at least 10 years. 13 Vietnam The ConocoPhillips-led Cuu Long joint-venture group tested oil at a rate of 9,100 bbl. per day from its Su Tu Nau (Brown Lion) discovery in Block 15-1 off the southeast coast of Vietnam. It drilled the well to 3,536 meters. The group also plans to bring its Su Tu Vang (Golden Lion) Field onstream at a peak rate of 80,000 bbl. per day in 2008. That's the same rate as the currently producing Su Tu Den (Black Lion) Field, also in Block 15-1. Development at Su Tu Den is through a floating production, storage and offloading vessel. In separate activity, Vietnam awarded offshore Block 124 in the Phu Khanh Basin offshore the nation's east coast to Calgary-based Keeper Resources. The block is geologically similar to the Cuu Long Basin. Also in the basin, India's ONGC Videsh successfully bid on Block 127, which is near the Nam Con Son project in which Lan Do and Lan Tay fields produce gas. Both companies plan geophysical work to prove up prospects.