Page 16 - MEOG Week 01 2021
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MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG
Sharjah’s Mahani field comes on-stream
UAE THE UAE’s Sharjah National Oil Corp. (SNOC) up running to nine months.
and its Italian partner Eni announced in early Eni was awarded its stake in Area B as it won
January that gas production had begun at the all three of the blocks offered in an onshore bid
Mahani field discovered in the emirate a year round launched in June by SNOC.
ago. The Italian company took 75% operating
Production will come from the Mahani-1 stakes in concession Areas A and C – covering
well, which is located in Sharjah’s Area B, for respectively 437 square km in the north and
which a deal was signed in January 2019 giving 1,184 square km in the south-east, with SNOC
the firms a 50:50 split with SNOC, the operator. holding the remainder.
The 264-square km concession in central According to information provided at the
Sharjah contains both the existing Sajaa gas and auction’s outset, Eni will be required to drill at
condensate field and a known but unappraised least one well at Area A and acquire 600 km of
deep gas discovery. seismic at Area C during the initial exploration
Mahani is reported to be the first gas discov- period. The licences will run for 30 years.
ery in Sharjah since 1983, with the Mahani-1 All three blocks lie in the proven Thrust Zone
well drilled to a total depth of 14,597 feet (5,000 play and were promoted by the authorities on the
metres) and test flows running at a rate of 50mn basis that fields in the area had already yielded
cubic feet (1.42mn cubic metres) per day of gas 142bn cubic metres of reserves. The pitch also
and associated condensate. trumpeted the purported ease of commercial-
In March 2020, SNOC said that produc- ising any discoveries by dint of their potential
tion at Mahani would be pushed back by two connection to extensive existing production and
months because of the impact of the coronavirus processing infrastructure, installed chiefly to
(COVID-19) pandemic, though this delay ended serve the Sajaa field.
Tethys Oil spins the bit in Oman
OMAN SWEDEN’S Tethys Oil this week announced that said in mid-2020 that work would begin before
it had begun drilling work on the Thameen-1 the end of the year.
well in Block 49 onshore Oman. Despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan-
The news follows the company’s deal to demic and the resultant oil sector downturn,
farm out a 50% stake in the exploration and Tethys ramped up its efforts in Oman in 2020.
production-sharing agreement (EPSA) to US In October, it agreed terms on a deal that will see
unconventionals specialist EOG Resources in it acquire an additional stake of 45% in Block 56
November, a deal which is subject to govern- EPSA, making it the operator. It also announced
ment approval. a deal to buy the stake from Indonesia’s Medco
Tethys said in a statement to press that the Energi for $5mn, with Tethys also agreeing to
well would be drilled to a total depth of around carry $2mn of Medco’s future expenditure in the
4,000 metres, with operations expected to take block. The Indonesian company retains a share
roughly 45 days. Thameen-1 is located in the of 5%.
north of Block 49 at Marsudad village. Meanwhile, EOG’s entry to Block 49 illus-
The company is primarily targeting a late trated the firm’s confidence in Oman following
Ordovician Hasirah sandstone layer at a depth its entry to the Sultanate in September, when it
of 3,500 metres but will also test mid-Ordovician signed an EPSA for Block 36 in south-western
Saih Nihayda sandstone at 3,700 metres as well Oman.
as investigating the shallower Gharif Sandstone. Under the terms of the deal, by mid-2022
Managing director Magnus Nordin said: EOG will drill at least two exploratory wells
“The Thameen-1 well is designed to penetrate in the 18,556-square km onshore concession,
several potentially hydrocarbon-bearing rock which it acquired from the local subsidiary of
layers. We have three defined targets, but we Canada-based Allied Petroleum Exploration
will analyse all data from the well to increase our (APEX). The move was a significant step in its
understanding of the potential oil plays in the diversification away from dependence on US
block, conventional as well as unconventional.” shale assets, though this was unsurprising given
Tethys is using the Abraj-204 drill rig which is comments by the company’s CEO and chair-
on contract from Abraj Energy Services. man William (Bill) Thomas saying that he does
The commencement of drilling is only mar- not anticipate US oil production to recover to
ginally behind schedule, with Nordin having pre-pandemic levels.
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