Abraxas Ramps Production at Bakken/Three Forks Play

- Abraxas Ramps Production at Bakken/Three Forks Play

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Abraxas Petroleum Corp.

Abraxas provided an operational update.

Rocky Mountain – North Dakota / Montana

In McKenzie County, North Dakota, Abraxas drilled the Stenehjem 27-34 1H to a total measured depth of 16,504 feet, including a 5,965 foot lateral in the middle Bakken formation, and completed the well with a 17-stage fracture stimulation. The well was recently placed on production, including gas (and natural gas liquids) directly into the sales line, and is currently in the early stages of cleaning up and producing at rates in excess of 800 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which is comprised of approximately 600 barrels of oil, 100 barrels of natural gas liquids and 700 Mcf of residue gas. We anticipate providing initial rates (after recovery of frac fluid) when 30-day rates are also available. Abraxas owns an approximate 79% working interest in this well.

In various counties in North Dakota and Montana, fourteen non-operated horizontal wells, targeting the Bakken or Three Forks formation, in which Abraxas owns a working interest are currently in progress or recently placed on-line. Four gross (0.15 net) wells went on production in mid-June, three gross (0.15 net) wells have been fracture stimulated and are currently cleaning up, three gross (0.50 net) wells are waiting on completion and four gross (0.07 net) wells are waiting on a drilling rig. Since January 2010, Abraxas has elected to participate in 19 gross (1.02 net) non-operated wells in the Bakken / Three Forks play.

In McKenzie County, North Dakota, two gross (0.11 net) non-operated horizontal wells targeting the Mission Canyon have been drilled and completed and are currently waiting on production facilities.

Abraxas anticipates being in a position in the near future to discuss long-term service availability to allow a multi-year continuous development plan on its Bakken / Three Forks acreage.

Rocky Mountain - Wyoming

In Campbell and Niobrara Counties, Wyoming, a two well oil development program is scheduled to begin this fall. One of these horizontal wells will target the Niobrara formation and one will target the Turner formation. Abraxas owns a 100% working interest in each of these wells.

Rocky Mountain – Alberta Basin Bakken

Abraxas has been approached by a number of companies in the industry with respect to a joint venture or similar arrangement; however, Abraxas has elected to wait for more definitive results from wells drilled to-date in the play before planning a course of action. Abraxas' leases have a primary term of 5-10 years providing plenty of time to evaluate the results of other operators in the play.

South Texas – Eagle Ford

Abraxas currently owns a 50% equity interest in Blue Eagle, which is a joint venture between Abraxas and Rock Oil Company, LLC.
In DeWitt County, Texas, Blue Eagle's first well, the T-Bird 1H, continues to outperform expectations and is currently producing approximately 1,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which is comprised of approximately 200 barrels of condensate, 340 barrels of natural gas liquids and 3.2 MMcf of residue gas. The well has produced approximately 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent during its first 150 days on production. Blue Eagle owns a 100% working interest in this well.

In DeWitt County, Texas, Blue Eagle participated in a non-operated horizontal well with its 43.9% working interest. The well, the Matejek Gas Unit 1, was drilled to a total measured depth of approximately 17,865 feet, including a 3,600 foot lateral, and recently completed with a 14-stage fracture stimulation. The well flow tested at restricted rates in excess of 780 barrels of oil equivalent per day through a choke while recovering frac fluid. The well is currently shut-in waiting on pipeline hookup.

In Atascosa County, Texas, the Grass Farms 1H should spud this week as the rig is currently rigging up. This well is located in the oil window of the play and will be drilled to a total measured depth of approximately 12,500 feet, including a 5,000 foot lateral. A fracture stimulation date has been secured for this well in August. Blue Eagle owns a 100% working interest in this well.

South Texas – Portilla

In San Patricio County, Texas, seven wells have been drilled and completed to-date in the multi-well in-fill drilling program and one additional well was recently recompleted. Three of the new wells targeted the dual objectives of the 7,400 and 8,100 foot Frio sands and four targeted the 7,400 foot Frio sand. These wells have increased production in the field by 100% and have added approximately 300 barrels of oil equivalent per day, 82% of which is oil. This drilling program has met the Company's economic expectations and six additional locations remain to be drilled, all of which are scheduled for later this year. Abraxas owns a 100% working interest in each of these wells.

West Texas

In Nolan County, Texas, the Spires 126 2H recently reached a total measured depth of approximately 9,000 feet, including a 2,000 foot lateral. Completion operations will commence on this well in the near future. Abraxas owns a 100% working interest in this well.
In Coke County, Texas, in the NE Millican Reef field, Abraxas anticipates drilling two vertical delineation wells targeting the Canyon Sand play which is located approximately 30 miles to the southwest of Spires Ranch in the near future. The rig that drilled the Spires Ranch well will move to drill one of these two wells, after which, the rig will return to Spires Ranch for a continual horizontal development program, and assuming favorable results on the first well, the rig will return to NE Millican when convenient to drill the second well. Abraxas owns a 100% working interest in these wells.

In Reeves County, Texas, Abraxas recently acquired 640 net acres, for a total of approximately 3,000 net acres, in the emerging Wolfbone play. Two wells directly adjacent to our acreage are being currently drilled by the industry.

Canada - Pekisko

In Alberta, Canada, production from the Twining 9-11 remains relatively stable at approximately 100 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Two wells offsetting the successful Twining well will be drilled back-to-back, the first of which spudded this week. The two wells will be drilled horizontally and will target the Pekisko formation. Canadian Abraxas owns a 100% working interest in each of these wells.

Comments

"With the expected performance of the Portilla and Twining wells and the recent new production in the Bakken / Three Forks play, we have more than offset production disruptions from wells shut-in in the Williston Basin due to unprecedented high water and flooding. With all of our drilling activity, we should be in a position to continue sequential quarterly production growth for the foreseeable future," commented Bob Watson, Abraxas' President and CEO.

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Under New Rules, Chevron Ramps Up Activities in US Gulf

- Under New Rules, Chevron Ramps Up Activities in US Gulf

Thursday, June 02, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
by Isabel Ordonez

Within the maze of gray tanks, pipes and machinery that make up this gigantic oil platform rising from the sea is a small red rectangle about the size of a wine bottle, with a rapidly clicking numeric panel. Rick Bullock, who runs Chevron's deep-water production operations, calls it "the cash register."

The instrument counts every barrel of oil the Tahiti platform, located 190 miles south of New Orleans, pulls from miles beneath the sea floor. During a visit last Friday, the meter showed the field was producing oil at the tune of about 109,000 barrels a day. With oil prices hovering at $100 per barrel, that's about $10 million a day flowing into the coffers of Chevron, which owns 58% of the field, and its partners Total and Statoil.

Making sure the money keeps rolling out of Tahiti is crucial for Chevron, at a time when oil prices are high and the company has ambitious growth projections to meet. The company aims to grow worldwide output this year by 1% to 2.79 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and to 3.3 million barrels of oil equivalent by 2017, or 19% more than it produced last year. That's a prodigious ramp up, especially as it navigates an array of new regulations that have slowed drilling in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, one of its main theaters of operation. The regulations came in the wake of last year's massive oil spill, which also resulted in a nine-month-long drilling suspension.

Now Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company after ExxonMobil, has to cram more work into less time to meet its expectations even as its engineers try to grasp the new rules, a scramble that underscores how oil and gas producers in the Gulf's deep water are adapting to a new legal environment.

The San Ramon, Calif., oil giant is so concerned about the sluggish pace that it is considering contracting more drilling ships than it originally intended in order to meet its 2013 deadlines for the Tahiti expansion and the 2014 start up of two massive ultra deep-water fields, Big Foot and Jack/St. Malo, located 35 and 140 miles south of Tahiti, respectively.

"It's probably a fact that we are going to have to bring additional drill ships into the Gulf of Mexico to be able to meet that schedule," Warner Williams, Chevron's vice president for the Gulf of Mexico Business Unit, said in an phone interview. Williams didn't specify how many more rigs the company could add. Chevron currently has three rigs doing development and exploratory drilling in the Gulf.

With the arrival of hurricane season, which started Wednesday and lasts through November, Chevron and other companies face even more pressure as the presence of a storm could result in lengthy evacuations and lost work days.

Chevron was among the first oil companies to receive government approval to drill back in the Gulf's deep water, including here, where the Transocean's Discovery Clear Leader drillship can be seen floating a few miles from the platform, doing work that will allow the field to increase production to 150,000 barrels a day in 2013. But the company still has 10 development and exploration plans and approximately 15 drilling permit applications pending approval elsewhere in the Gulf.

"The pace of the permitting process has been slow. It's clear we are not where we need to be," Williams said. "We would like the process to go a little bit faster." The federal government says it is approving permits as fast as it deems safe.

Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said the drilling suspension, along with a new, more time consuming permitting process, will result in the loss this year of about 375,000 barrels of oil a day--or 20% of previously estimated production levels.

"Nobody really knows when things in the Gulf are going to be back to what we called a new equilibrium," said Mohammad Rahman, Wood Mackenzie's analyst for the Gulf of Mexico. "Our previous assumption was it will be some time in 2012, but now it could be 2013 when we see a more stable, consistent level in permitting process."

The main reason for the slowdown in the permitting process is that the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulations and Enforcement--the federal agency on charge of offshore operations--doesn't have enough regulators to handle the backlog of projects, Rahman said.

The bureau, which was created after the oil spill, is still in the midst of a reorganization, Rahman said.

Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the government "is working as expeditiously as is safely possible to approve exploration plans and permits."

It began approving permits in February, when two oil deep-water oil spill containment systems were deemed operationally ready by the authorities.

Tahiti, discovered in 2002, is one of the largest fields in the Gulf, with 400 million to 500 million barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable resources. Oil production, which began two years ago, accounts for about 64% of Chevron's total output in the Gulf.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Pegasi Ramps Reserves in Tx.

- Pegasi Ramps Reserves in Tx.

Thursday, May 26, 2011
Pegasi Energy Resources Corp.

Pegasi released net oil and gas reserves as of December 31, 2010.

The Company is reporting total net proved reserves of 3,024,333 Barrels of Oil Equivalent (BOE), net probable reserves of 610,339 BOE and net possible reserves of 10,620,722 BOE as of 12/31/2010. A 6,000 CUFT ratio to one barrel of oil is used to equate BCF to BOE. In addition, Pegasi has internally estimated its unrisked total Contingent Resource potential of 77,130,240 BOE bringing the total unrisked plus risked reserve to 91,461,463 BOE. The contingent resource evaluation was performed by utilizing the data presented in the Engineering Study and Economic Analysis for the Cass and Marion Development Program prepared by James E. Smith and Associates.

All of the reported oil and gas reserves are from the Company's Cornerstone project located in Marion and Cass counties in northeast Texas and are based on independent engineering by James E. Smith and Associates. The Company has a 40% to 80% working interest in the project.

The area of the Cornerstone Project has produced over 400 million barrels of oil and more than 2.3 trillion cubic feet of gas. Pegasi is focused on applying new horizontal drilling and multistage frac technology to recover substantial additional oil and gas reserves which remain in place.

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CNOOC Ramps Up Production in 1Q11

CNOOC Ramps Up Production in 1Q11

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

CNOOC Ltd.

CNOOC announced its results for the first quarter of 2011.

During the period, the Company achieved a total net production of 85.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), representing an increase of 26.6% year-on-year (YoY).

For the first quarter of 2011, the Company made five new discoveries and successfully drilled six appraisal wells offshore China. Within the period, Jinzhou 25-1 project offshore China commenced production successfully. Other major projects were progressing as planned.

In the first quarter of 2011, the Company purchased a 33.3% undivided interest in Chesapeake's Niobrara project. In addition, the Company and Tullow Oil entered into agreements for the acquisition of its one-third interests in each of Exploration Areas 1, 2 and 3A in Uganda. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2011.

Benefiting from increased oil and gas production and higher realized prices, the total unaudited revenue of the Company amounted to approximately RMB48.51 billion for the first quarter of 2011, representing a significant increase of 59.1% YoY. During the period, the Company's average realized oil price rose 32.7% YoY to US $99.98 per barrel. The Company's average realized gas price was US $4.81 per thousand cubic feet, up 8.6% YoY.

For the first quarter of 2011, the Company's capital expenditure reached approximately RMB6.40 billion, representing an increase of 10.3% YoY.

Mr. Yang Hua, Chief Executive Officer of the Company commented, "We have recorded excellent first quarter results driven by our efficient operation and higher realized oil prices. Meanwhile, we have made great progress in overseas development, which will provide a strong support for our reserve and production growth in the future."

PetroLatina Ramps Production in 1Q11

PetroLatina Ramps Production in 1Q11

Thursday, April 14, 2011
PetroLatina Energy plc

PetroLatina announced a production update in respect of the first quarter of 2011.

The Company achieved total gross production from its Tisquirama, La Paloma and Midas license blocks located in the Middle Magdelana Valley, Colombia, in the three months to 31 March 2011 of 193,790 barrels of oil (bbls) (2010 equivalent period: 155,323 bbls) and total net production of 90,536 bbls (2010 equivalent period: 72,465 bbls) at an average gross production rate of 2,154 barrels of oil per day (bopd) (2010 equivalent period: 1,726 bopd) and an average net production rate of 1,006 bopd (2010 equivalent period: 805 bopd).

As announced previously, the Serafin-1 gas well located in the Company's Tisquirama license block is currently on an extended 6 month production test at a flow rate of 5.5 MMscf/d of gas and a well pressure of 1,850 pounds per square inch (psi). The well has, during the test period to date, achieved total gross production of 95.98 MMscf of gas (15,997 barrels of oil equivalent) and total net production of 44.15MMscf (7,359 boe). Gas produced during the 6 month extended test period is being sold to Ecopetrol S.A. at 90% of the regulated price for Texaco for Barranca-Ballena's gas (as regulated by CREG, the Regulatory Commission of Energy and Gas of Colombia). The regulated price is currently $4.2562/million British thermal unit (BTU). The Serafin-1 well is jointly owned by PetroLatina (50%) and PetroSantander Corporation (50%).

The Company expects to release the results of an updated independent reserves report commissioned from Ryder Scott Company, L.P. and various geological and petrophysical studies during the current quarter.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Chief Executive of PetroLatina, commented, "Our first quarter average production rates and the initial results to date from the Serafin-1 gas well have been very encouraging and in line with our expectations. We continue to pursue our strategy of seeking to increase production and reserves and expect to resume our development drilling in a more effective and low risk manner later this year."