UPSTREAM REVIEW

• Published date: 01 February 2015
• Date: 01 February 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/oet.12229

UPSTREAM REVIEW

Africa

Egypt : Eni announced a new discovery of oil and gas in

the WestMelehia deep exploration prospect in the West-

ern Desert of Egypt, 300 km (186 mi) west of Alexandria.

e Melehia West Deep 1X exploration well was

drilled to 4,175 m (13,698 ), encountering 20 m (66 )

of light oil pay. e well also encountered signicant gas

and condensate, the company said.

Production began at an initial rate of 2,100 bpd of

40∘API gravity oil, to be treated at the nearby Melehia

eld. Eni said the discovery will be rapidly followed by

the drilling of other delineation and development wells

that should result in an estimated production of about

8,000 bpd by the end of the year.

Eni holds a 76% interest in the Melehia license

through its subsidiary, International Egyptian Oil Co

(IEOC). Lukoil holds 24%. e operator is Agiba,

which is equally held by IEOC and Egyptian General

Petrol eum Corp.

Kenya: Tullow Oil said it is considering further explo-

ration in the North Kerio basin of Kenya aer the

Epir-1 exploration well encountered oil and wet gas

shows.

Whilenotadiscoverythecompanysaidtheshows,

over a 100 m (328 ) interval of nonreservoir quality

rocks, demonstrated a working petroleum system.

e Epir-1 well is located on block 10BB in the North

Kerio Basin, a separate sub-basin from that tested by the

Kodos-1 well, 25 km (15.5 mi) to the south. It was drilled

to a na l depth of 3,057 m (10,030 ).

Tullow operates block 10BB with 50% interest. Africa

Oil Corp. holds the remaining 50% interest.

Asia Pacic

China: CNOOC Ltd. reported what it calls a

“mid-to-large sized” natural gas discovery with its

Lingshui 25-1-1 exploration well in the northeast part

of Ledong Sag in the Qiongdongnan basin of the South

China Se a at an average water depth of ab out 980 m

(3,215 ).

e well was drilled and completed at a depth of

4,000 m (13,123 ) and encountered an oil and gas pay

zone with a total thickness of 73 m (240 ). On test,

production rates of about35.6 mn cfd of gas and 395 bpd

of oil were achieved, the company said.

e discovery follows the Lingshui 17-2 discovery in

the basin in early 2014. CNOOC said the new discovery

opens a new exploration chapter in the deep-water area

of the northern South China Sea and further proves the

good exploration prospects in the Qiongdongnan basin.

Austral ia: Santos reported that the B arossa-3 appraisal

well intersected a gross gas bearing interval of 152 m

(499 ) providing signicantupside to the resource posi-

tion for the Barossa gas eld in the Bonaparte basin o-

shore Northern Territory.

Barossa-3, was drilled about 300 km (186 mi) north of

Darwin, 9 km (5.6 mi) from the Barossa-1ST1 discovery

well and 14km(8.7mi)from the successfulBarossa-2

appraisal well that was drilled in mid-2014.

Wireline logging from Barossa-3 conrmed 104m

(341 ) of net pay at a measured depth of between 4,032

and 4,184 m (13,228 and 13,727 ). On test, the well

owed at a rate of 27 mn cfd.

Partner in the venture, ConocoPhillips has started

drilling the third well in the campaign, Baross a-4.

Santos holds a 25% interest in the Barossa-Caldita

joint venture.ConocoPhillips is operator with 37.5% and

SK E&S also has 37.5%.

Europe

Norway : Norway oered 54 produ ction licenses (PLs) to

43 companies in its Awards in Pre-Dened Areas 2014

(APA 2014).

Of the 54 PLs, 34 are in the North Sea, 16 in the

Norwegian Se a, and 4 in the Barents Sea. A record

number of applications we re submitted by a total of 47

companies.

e APA licensing rounds cover the most explored

areas on the Norwegian continental shelf. Interest was

greatest for areas in the central part of the North Sea

and the Norwegian Sea. Seventeen of the licenses are

additional acreage to existing PLs.

e Norwegian government explained that one of

the primary challenges in mature areas is the expected

decline in discovery size. Minor discoveries will not

be able to carry standalone developments, but may

be protable when they can exploit existing and

planned processing equipment and transp ortation

systems, or be seen in context with other discover-

ies or planned developments. Timely discovery and

exploitation of such res ources is therefore important,

the government said.

Statoil was oered eight operatorships, t he most of

any applicant. Lundin Norway was oered six, and Total

E&P Norge AS and Tullow Oil Norge AS, ve each. e

companies receiving the most overall license oers were

Statoil with 15, Eon 12, Det norske oljeselskap 9, Total 9,

Lundin 8, and Wintershall 7.

Spain: Repsol said it was abandoning oil and gas

explorationotheCanaryIslandsaeraninitialsurvey

yielded insucient results to merit extraction.

e deep-water survey, which began in November,

was about 60 km (37 mi) from Lanzarote and Fuerteven-

tura, o the west coast of Africa. e joint venture con-

sisting of Repsol, Woodside Petroleum, and RWE had

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