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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.
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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.
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