Page 12 - MEOG Week 48

MEOG ProJeCts & ComPanIes MEOG
Zarubezhneft in line for Omani exploration acquisition
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OMAN’s Oil Minister said last week that Rus- sian firm Zarubezhneft is being considered for the development of an offshore oil concession.
Without specifying the name of the asset, Mohammed Ruhmy told local media: “It’s an oil offshore [project], we want to hand over the block to them for further development ... We [are] evaluating. We should make a decision very soon.”
He added that Zarubezhneft could wind up with a 75% stake in the field, with state-owned Oman Oil Co. (OOC) holding the remainder.
The minister said that the asset has significant potential but currently produces just 3,000-5,000 barrels per day, noting that the Russian com- pany’s involvement would include additional exploration work in order to drive up output.
Russian press reported in september that Zarubezhneft had begun negotiations for assets in Oman.
Muscat has been trying to attract IOC inter- est, launching a six-block bid round in February. In an effort to lower the perceived risk and attract wider interest in its 2016 auction, Muscat published large quantities of data – both pub- licly and on formal registration – on the acreage, accrued by previous operators, in the latest case primarily state-backed Petroleum Development
Oman (PDO).
However, the new round covers primar-
ily pure or near-pure exploration plays in the remote south-west. These had been part of the state-owned firm’s Block 6 concession, which at 900,000 square km comprises the bulk of the sul- tanate’s onshore territory and produces around 650,000 bpd.
The company was “obliged to relinquish these blocks due to statutory licence rules,” the min- istry said. “All blocks are aligned along known play trends and structures are mapped in each. together these blocks offer potential across the complete producing section within Oman, from the Precambrian through the Cretaceous.”
The five south-western blocks are numbered 58, 73, 74, 75 and 76. Block 58 covers an area of 4,557 square km and is deemed a “pure explora- tion” gas block.
two wells have been drilled, the first of which – by PDO in 2002 – found gas in the Nafun and Abu Mahara groups, and several structures were said to have been mapped. The expected reservoirs are carbonate with some sandstone stringers.
Block 76 in a 704 square km sliver of land to the immediate north – bordering to the west
block 57, which was awarded in January last year to Lebanese newcomer to the sultanate, Petroleb. The newly-offered block is again an explora- tion play, with only a single well drilled, in 1982. This was said to be prospective for oil in the shal-
lower targets and gas at the deeper levels.
The horizontally-adjacent blocks 73-75 lie to the north of block 76. The easternmost block 73 covers a 2,988 square km area described as “essentially unexplored”, with the last of five wells having been drilled in 1985. Potential new oper- ators have been invited to return on the basis that better geological understanding of the relevant geologic section “makes this and adjacent blocks more prospective than thought at the time the
wells were drilled”.
Muscat’s typical pitch nationwide is that
technological development in the period since previous exploration efforts renders areas newly attractive.
Block 73 was, like block 76, adjudged an oil block with deep gas potential.
to the west, the 3,064 square km block 74 has been the subject of more-recent exploration activity, with a trap tested by the Zapfaran well in 2012 and a total of three exploration wells drilled. However, the majority of the area was nonetheless said to be unexplored.
Again, it was described as an oil block for any shallow reservoirs and a probable gas block for deeper reservoirs. Further to the west, 2,266 square km block 75 has seen a single well drilled by PDO in 1972 at the far north-western edge and is advertised as a pure exploration block.
Central block
the outlier of the auction is the smaller 639 square km block 70, in the centre of the sultanate and containing the undeveloped Mafraq heavy oil field – described as “a secondary-recovery target”. Five wells have been drilled, predom- inantly prior to 1992 in the shuaiba and Natih formations where gas was found. the most recent well was drilled in 2011.
The licence was said to be a proven oil block and a prospective gas condensate block. It lies just to the west of producing blocks 3 and 4, which are operated by Lebanon’s CC Energy Development alongside sweden’s tethys Petroleum.
The latter signed-up for one of the four blocks offered in the 2016 auction – block 49 – just over a year ago. It also expressed interest in further expansion in the sultanate during a full-year results presentation in early February.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 48 04•December•2019