Page 10 - MEOG Week 48

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Masirah contracts rig for Oman drilling

OMAN MASIRAH Oil Ltd (MOL) has booked Shelf to a qualified person’s report (QPR), and cumu-
Drilling’s Tenacious jack-up rig for a three-well lative production stood at 1.05mn STB produced
campaign for Block 50 offshore Oman that is due as of June 30.
to begin in December. The latest drilling campaign will consist of
The 16,903-square km concession was the two development wells at Yumna and an explo-
location of the GA South discovery, Oman’s first ration well to determine the further potential of
offshore find, by Singapore-backed Rex Inter- Block 50.
national Holding (RIH), which owns 86.37% In a press release, RIH said the Yumna wells
of MOL, which in turn holds 100% of Block would be “drilled to boost production”, with the
50. Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals other well targeting one of 14 prospects nearby.
(MEM) declared the field’s commerciality ear- “One exploration well to be drilled in 2021 will
lier this year and approved MOL’s development be selected from 14 identified prospects near the
plan for the asset, which was renamed as Yumna. Yumna Field, for which the best estimate of gross
The field was discovered in 2014 but its devel- unrisked prospective resources (2U) is 152.3mn
opment was delayed in the wake of the oil price STB” of crude.
slump the same year while initiating a search for It also noted that the QPR covered only 9% of
farm-in partners to share the high level of per- Block 50, for which Aker Geo and Pareto in 2012
ceived risk. estimated best estimate gross unrisked prospec-
The Yumna-1 well was drilled in Decem- tive resources at more than 4bn barrels.
ber 2019 to appraise the field and in February Rex’s executive chairman Dan Broström said:
42-degree API crude flowed from it at a rate of “A discovery in this exploration well will enable
11,843 barrels per day (bpd). The field is thought us to put together further development plans and
to hold around 9.6mn stock tank barrels (STB) potentially convert more prospective resources
of proven plus probable (2P) reserves, according near the Yumna field into additional reserves.”™

Gazprom Neft increasing Kurdistan output

KURDISTAN RUSSIAN firm Gazprom Neft said last week that options in the region.”
it will soon increase its production in the Kurd- Total cumulative production at Sarqala has
istan Region of northern Iraq, with the semi-au- reached 32mn barrels. First oil was reached in
tonomous area remaining a key strategic focus. 2011, with commercial flows beginning in 2015,
In a statement on November 25, Gazprom following the commissioning of the Sarqala-1
Neft’s deputy CEO for E&P, Vadim Yakovlev, well and an initially slow ramp-up now modestly
said that the further well at the Sarqala oilfield gathering pace. A second well was brought on
would be completed in the first half of 2021, ena- stream in 2018, raising output from 11,000 bpd
bling production to be expanded from the cur- to 25,000 bpd, and in April 2019 a third well
rent 24,000 barrels per day to 32,000 bpd. entered production.
“Despite the [coronavirus] COVID-19-re- In December last year, the company said
lated restrictions, we continued implementa- that cumulative output from the asset in the
tion of our projects in the region in 2020. The south-eastern Garmian licence had reached
fourth well will be commissioned at the Sarqala 23mn barrels.
field that will allow boosting and supporting the It added that “surface facilities and infrastruc-
production level,” Yakolev said. ture have been significantly expanded in the
Sarqala is located in Kurdistan’s Garmian course of developing this field”; meanwhile, the
block in which Gazprom Neft holds an operated “pipeline processing system has been updated,
40% working interest alongside Canada-based and the production-process automated control
WesternZagros Resources (also 40%) and the system modernised.”
Kurdistan Regional Government (20%, carried). Last week’s statement came as Russian For-
The Russian firm also holds an 80% share of the eign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Iraqi
Shakal block, again carrying Erbil’s 20% stake. counterpart Fuad Hussein. After the meeting,
Yakolev added: “Today, after having created Lavrov said: “Our largest energy companies
the production base, [having] acquired a unique work in Iraq together with their partners. These
experience and getting an understanding of geo- are Lukoil, Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Bashneft.
logical peculiarities of the territory, we remain These four [companies] have invested more than
interested in exploration of new development $13bn in the Iraqi economy.”™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 02•December•2020