|
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).
|
