Fergana 2007
Operators are shooting 11500 line-km of 2D seismic surveys in the Fergana basin in Kyrgyzstan and starting some of the first drilling in the basin since Soviet times.

A seismic program operated by a unit of Santos Ltd. of Australia involves 849 km on licenses under tenure to CJSC South Petroleum Co. (SPC) and 689 km on licenses held by CJSC Textonic, both headquartered in Bishkek. SPC is owned 70% by Santos International Holdings Pty Ltd., 25% by DWM Petroleum AG, and 5% by Kyrgyzneftegas. Manas Petroleum Corp., Baar, Switzerland, owns DWM. Tectonic is legally owned by Caspian Oil & Gas Ltd., Balcatta, Western Australia, and beneficially owned 33% by Santos and funded by Santos as part of farmouts from SPC and Textonic.

Acquisition has begun in the Tuzluk (SPC) and Sulukta (Textonic) licenses and is to continue in SPC's West Soh, Soh, Naushkent, and Nanai licenses and Textonic's Katran, Akbura, Charvak, East Mailisu, and West Mailisu licenses. The $10 million-plus program is likely to take 12 months. If results are positive, drilling could take place in 2008 or later Acquisition contractors are OJSC Saratovneftegeofisica and OJSC Kyrgyzgeofisica. 

Kyrgyz drilling

Separate from the joint venture with Santos, Caspian Oil & Gas appears to have extended Mailisu III oil field to the northwest at the first of 11 planned wells in the northern Fergana basin.

COG's Mailisu III-2 well was to spud on Nov. 9 toward a projected 1,500 m with oil targets in the Paleogene and gas targets in the Jurassic.

At Mailisu III-1, close to the southern boundary of the company's Ashvaz license, oil saturated cores and wireline logs suggest that the well cut as much as 2 m of net pay in the Bed V and VII intervals, which will be pump-tested.

The Mailisu III license has oil reserves of 6 million bbl, of which 1 million bbl have been produced, the US Geological Survey estimated in its 1994 report on the Fergana basin.

COG's drilling program has four focus areas: Mailisu III/Ashvaz, East Mailisu, North Charvak, and Charvak, all clustered northwest of Jalal-Abad. Reprocessing of seismic by Santos has identified further leads with potential at less than 1,000 m on the Charvak and East Mailisu blocks that will be followed up later.

COG is using a new rig purchased from China with a depth capacity of 2,500 m or more.

Fergana objectives

The Fergana basin has been producing oil and gas since 1902, Manas Petroleum noted. Discovered reserves total 1.2 billion bbl and 5.5 tcf of gas, and cumulative production exceeds 600 million bbl. The basin lies on an oil trend between the Precaspian basin in northwestern Kazakhstan and northwestern China's Tarim basin. Fergana and Tarim share the same geology Working with the Kyrgyz state oil company Kyrgyzneftegas, a Manas shareholder, has acquired what it views as the best lands in the basin (see map).

Manas said the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991-ended Soviet exploration and discovery of large oil fields in the basin's deeper underthrust structures, but China continued drilling the same types of deep structures, resulting in the discovery of more than 15 billion bbl of oil. The USGS noted that the oil should be contained in structures similar to Minbulak, the type outlined on the Manas' concessions (OGJ, Aug. 6, 2007, p. 36). The primary reservoir is multiple layers of thick Paleogene and Neogene sandstones.

Minbulak field, 50 km from the Naushkent and Nanai licenses, produced thousands of barrels a day per well from Neogene sandstone under high pressure at 17,000 ft (OGJ, Apr 27, 1992, p. 25).

The construction of the new gas deposit Dyahotina, which is located 45 kilometres to northeast from city of Gazli of Uzbekistan, is nearing completion. It is planned to put the deposit into operation during the third quarter of this year. In 2002 alone, it will allow to extract approximately 500 million cubic meters of natural gas. 

Gazli deposit area is one of the largest gas reserve areas in Uzbekistan, where the extraction operations continuing since 1961. During this period, gas worth of US$ 43 billion was extracted from underground, and this field puts Uzbekistan as one of the top ten Gas producers of the world.

In accordance to the Agreement on main principles and provisions of the contract on development and share distribution of the products of the deposits in the Bukhara Khiva and Gissar oil and gas bearing  and conducting geological surveying works in Uzbekistan, signed by Itera, Lukoil and Uzbekneftegaz in July 2001, it is planned to set up Joint Stock Company for implementation of the project. 

Authorized capital of Itera, Lukoil and Uzbekneftegaz will constituted 45%, 45% and 10% respectively. Expected period of development of deposits is 25 years. 
Reserves of the deposits covered by the project constitute 230 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 10 million tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons. 
Largest deposit is Kandim deposit, opened in 1966, with industrial reserves of the gas 180 billion cubic meters. 
 Volume of the initial investments in the project is estimated at US$377 million. Annual production of the gas at the initial stage is forecasted at 4.5 billion cubic meters. After reaching designed capacity maximal volume of the gas output will be raised till 8-10 billion cubic meters per year. 
Gas, extracted from deposits of Bukhara, Khiva and Gissar regions will be exported to Russia and further to Europe on the existing main pipelines Bukhara-Ural and Central Asia-Center. Project does not envisage construction of new gas pipelines. 

According to the data of Uzbekneftegas there are 171 opened in Uzbekistan, including 51 deposits of oil, 27 deposits of gas and 17 deposits of gas condensate. Potential of oil and gas bearing regions of Uzbekistan is assessed to be more than US$1 trillion. 
In 2001 Uzbekistan produced 7.25 million tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons (oil and gas condensate), which is 3.7% less than in 2000. Gas output in Uzbekistan during the last year increased by 1.8% compare to 2000 and constitute 57.4 billion cubic meters. 

The construction of the new gas deposit Dyahotina, which is located 45 kilometres to northeast from city of Gazli of Uzbekistan, is nearing completion. It is planned to put the deposit into operation during the third quarter of this year. In 2002 alone, it will allow to extract approximately 500 million cubic meters of natural gas. 

Gazli deposit area is one of the largest gas reserve areas in Uzbekistan, where the extraction operations continuing since 1961. During this period, gas worth of US$ 43 billion was extracted from underground, and this field puts Uzbekistan as one of the top ten Gas producers of the world.