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Apache lists budget shift because rising costs and maturing of US fields 2007

Antrim Discovers Oil  at Las Violetas 105 Well  2006 Repsol YPF Makes Gas Discovery in Neuquen Basin 2005


Argentina plans Apache lists budget shift because rising costs and maturing of US fields
By OGJ editors HOUSTON, Apr. 12 2007
Apache Corp. plans to drill 120 wells in 2007 in Argentina, where its early-year production averaged 11,000 b/d of oil and 200 MMcfd of gas. The company holds 2.5 million acres onshore in the Cuyo, Neuquen, San Jorge, and Austral basins.
The 2007 plan calls for shooting more than 2,000 sq km of 3D seismic surveys in the Austral basin in Tierra del Fuego, where 21 of the wells will be drilled. Two rigs will work there in the second quarter.
The company also expressed interest in exploring to the west in Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego, where a licensing round may be in prospect.
Overall, Apache will shift $500 million—adjusted from $600 million estimated in February—of its preliminary $4.1 billion 2007 exploration and production budget away from North America because of rising costs and the maturing of US fields. Instead, the company will spend those funds mainly on its existing projects Australia and Egypt.
Antrim Discovers Oil at Las Violetas 105 Well in Argentina
Antrim Energy 6/5/2006

Antrim Energy says the Las Violetas 105 well ("LV-105"), the latest well in Antrim's current drilling program in Argentina has resulted in a new oil discovery. The well was drilled to a target depth of 1,856 meters in the Springhill Formation, logged and the target formation perforated over a 16.5 meter interval (12.5 meter net). Initial flow rates of 750 barrels of oil per day ("bopd") of light crude with an API of 43 degrees and negligible water were recorded. The well is currently on production at a rate of 450 bopd at 110 psi with a 14 mm choke. The oil is being trucked approximately 25 km to the Rio Chico sales point. Recent prices for oil produced from the Tierra del Fuego area are approximately US$57 per barrel. Oil produced and sold in Tierra del Fuego is subject to a 12% royalty and no corporate income tax.

The Company anticipates that additional drilling locations will be constructed as soon as possible to delineate this oil discovery. The area around LV-105 was covered by the 3-D seismic program acquired in 2005. Antrim and partners have a rig on site to enable a rapid appraisal of the discovery.

The oil discovery LV-105 is the tenth of eleven wells drilled in Antrim's ongoing Tierra del Fuego program. To date, 5 wells have been completed and tested as liquid-rich gas wells; 3 wells have been cased and are awaiting stimulation; one well (LV-105) has been completed as an oil well and is on production; one well has just been logged and cased and is waiting on testing; and, one well has been plugged and abandoned.

Antrim has a 25.78% interest in three licenses in Tierra del Fuego. The Petroservico rig, used in the current drilling program, is under contract until August 31, 2006.
Repsol YPF Makes Natural Gas Discovery in Neuquen Basin
Repsol YPF 1/7/2005 URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=19253

Repsol YPF has discovered natural gas in two separate areas of the Neuquen Basin in Argentina. At the first find, in the Rincón del Mangrullo block, the discovery well registered an initial production estimated at 120,000 cubic meters of gas per day, and at the second, in the Piedra Chenque block, estimated initial production was 310,000 cubic meters of gas per day.

This second discovery is particularly important in that it is the first to be made in blocks recently tendered in the Neuquen province, and located in an area neighbouring other Repsol YPF operated blocks (Cerro Bandera, Portezuelo Mines and Octágono Fiscal), thus enabling a rapid production start-up.

These new discoveries were made possible by the use of cutting edge technology in the processing and reading of 3D seismic data, evolved at Repsol YPF's Center of Technology for Three-dimensional Visualization in Neuquen. This technological development employs the most advanced information system applied anywhere in the world to exploration fields and areas, making it possible to interpret a 3D scan beneath the earth's crust, and locate oil and gas reserves from the surface to a depth superior than traditional levels.