?Nexen Inc. has announced good results on its Muskwa shale program in northeastern British Columbia’s Horn River Basin. During the past year and a half, the Calgary-based firm acquired 123,000 net acres in the red-hot play.
During the past two winter drilling seasons, Nexen has been working the Dilly Creek area. In 2006-07, it drilled two vertical wells, and this year it drilled a vertical and two horizontals.
The company fracture-stimulated its vertical wells across the entire 170 meters of shale section, and fraced and completed one of its horizontal tests. That well tested more than 2 million cubic feet of gas per day from 300 meters of lateral, stimulated in two stages. The horizontal and one of the vertical wells are currently making 2.5 million a day in a long-term production test. Next winter, the company will frac and complete its second horizontal.
Going forward, it plans to drill longer laterals and frac six to 12 stages per well. Based on its work to date, Nexen thinks it could recover between 3- and 6 trillion cubic feet of contingent resources from its Dilly Creek lands.

?1 Mexico
Mexican national firm Pemex reports 308 billion cu. ft. in gas reserves from a 2006 discovery at Lakach Field, its deepest-water well drilled to date. Total estimated possible, probable and proved reserves of the field could be as high as 1.3 trillion cu. ft. Lakach is in 3,241 ft. of water in the Gulf of Mexico; first production is scheduled for 2013. The initial well on the prospect flowed some 30 million cu. ft. per day. Including Lakach, Pemex has made four deepwater discoveries to date: extra-heavy crude at Nab-1 in 2,231 ft. of water; gas at Lalail-1 in 2,641 ft. of water; and gas at Noxal-1 in 3,064 ft. of water. The company plans two deepwater exploratory wells this year.

2 Brazil
Brazilian national oil company Petrobras may have topped its recent super-giant Tupi and Jupiter subsalt discoveries in the offshore Santos Basin with another monster find. This one, Carioca, could potentially be much larger. The massive discovery is in Block BM-S-9; partners Petrobras, Repsol-YPF and BG Group have not announced official results, but say assessment work is ongoing.

3 Peru
Three drillstem tests have been carried out on the CX11-18XD well in Corvina Field offshore Peru in Block Z1, reports BPZ Resources Inc., Houston. To date, the well has produced a cumulative 5,350 bbl. of oil per day, although testing is not yet complete. All three tests have focused on sand members of the Upper Zorritos formation. Next, the company plans to spud the CX11-20XD.

4 Norway
Norwegian firm StatoilHydro has made a gas find in the Haltenbanken area in the Norwegian Sea that could hold some 53 billion cu. ft. of recoverable gas. The 6507/11-9 Natalia discovery lives five kilometers northwest of the Midgard structure, part of the Asgard complex of fields. The exploration well was drilled to 3,040 meters and completed in Jurassic-age sediments. It was not tested. Natalia is on Exploration License 263, which is held 70% by StatoilHydro and 30% by Bayerngas Norge.

5 Germany
German firm Activa Resources AG and partners Deutsche Rohstoff AG and Herzford International Ltd. have formed a company, Rhein Petroleum GmbH, to explore for oil and gas in Germany. The Bavarian Economics Ministry has granted the new firm the Schwaben-Süd exploration permit that covers 500,000 acres in southern Bavaria. The license lies in the districts of Oberbayern and Schwaben, and includes former Arlesried, Lauben, Lauberhart, Niederrieden and Heimertingen oil fields. It also contains a gas and condensate discovery in Kinsau. Production in the area was stopped in the 1980s through the 1990s due to poor economics.

6 Namibia
An expensive deepwater wildcat has finally spudded in frontier territory off Namibia. Russia’s Sintezneftegaz is using a drillship for the Kunene-1 well in Block 1711. Estimated well costs are $79 million. Few companies have been willing to spend money on licensing or exploration in Namibia, where the only serious find has been Kudu Field, which Tullow Oil is fighting to make commercial.
The Kunene-1 will be the sixteenth well to be drilled since Namibia’s independence and the first exploration well for several years. Block 1711 is in deep water in the Namibe Basin, along the international boundary with Angola. The well is projected to 4,400 meters in total depth.

7 Turkey
Dallas independent Toreador Resources Corp. has formed a joint venture with Thrace Basin Natural Gas and Pinnacle Turkey to explore six blocks in the Sea of Marmara. The JV will target an area in the northwestern portion of the sea adjacent to an onshore area of gas production in Thrace. The area is also immediately west of offshore Kuzey Marmara Field. Toreador is contributing three blocks that cover 1,527 sq. kilometers; the partners are contributing interests in three blocks closer to shore that cover 491 sq. kilometers. Toreador will act as operator with a 50% stake; Thrace Basin and Pinnacle will split the balance. A joint venture is also expected to be formed, covering the Thrace Black Sea permit area in Turkish waters. That 3,356-sq.-kilometer area is between the Bulgarian and Bosporus borders.

8 Iraq
Iraq’s oil ministry has invited international companies to bid for development of Akkaz Field, which has estimated reserves of more than 2.15 trillion cu. ft. of gas. The aim is to export gas from the field, which is in the western province of Anbar near the Syrian border. The tender document already includes a basic design for the project, and companies will submit detailed designs that include procurement of all equipment and required materials. Iraqi oil officials say the field could produce up to 50 million cu. ft. per day in an initial stage, and could later produce 500 million a day. Some officials estimated the reserves at as much as 7 trillion cu. ft.

9 China
Equity interests in 17 blocks offshore southern China are being offered up by state-owned CNOOC Ltd. The total area covers 45,817 sq. kilometers. Thirteen blocks are in the Pearl River Mouth Basin in the South China Sea. The blocks have varying levels of seismic data and are in 50 to 300 meters of water. Some drilling has taken place on several of the tracts, but several have never been drilled. The Pearl River blocks on offer are 04/12, 04/20, 04/24, 05/04, 05/16, 17/03, 17/06, 17/18, 14/18, 15/10, 15/28, 27/03 and 27/06. The remaining blocks—23/19, 63/17, 39/27 and 26/17—are in the western South China Sea. All of these have had seismic surveys and drilling activity. Water depths range from 20 to 240 meters.

10 Malaysia
BHP Petroleum plans to kick off a seismic survey this July over its two deepwater blocks offshore Sabah. Blocks N and Q are 175 kilometers offshore Kota Kinabalu in 1,600 to 2,800 meters of water. The concessions are in the same basin as the Kikeh, Malikai, Gumusut, Kakap and Ubah discoveries, and contain similar play types. The work commitment in Block N is the acquisition of 3-D seismic data and drilling four exploration wells at a minimum cost of $144 million. For Block Q, BHP needs to shoot 3-D and spend at least $12.4 million. The Australian firm holds a 60% operating stake in both blocks; Malaysia’s state-owned Petro­nas Carigali holds the balance. Petronas is carried by BHP during the exploration stage.

11 New Zealand
Grapevine, Texas-based Discovery Geo plans to spud an offshore gas exploration well in New Zealand’s Taranaki Basin in July. The operator will use a jack-up to drill the shallow-water Awakino South-1, which is seven kilometers from the Taranaki coast in the PEP 38479 concession. Partners are operator Discovery Geo (62.5%); Corpus Christi, Texas-based Manti Resources (25%); and MM Cone (12.5%). The joint venture is looking at a sub-thrust Mangahewa sandstone play, with the well to be drilled to a depth of 3,000 meters