Dart Commences Drilling Ops at China Daijing Proj.

- Dart Commences Drilling Ops at China Daijing Proj.

Thursday, September 08, 2011
Dart Energy Ltd.

Dart Energy has commenced drilling activities at the Dajing project in Xinjiang Province, China, with the spudding of the first two exploration wells (DJD-02E and DJD-10E). This is part of an initial exploration program which will see a total of up to 14 exploration wells drilled prior to year end, and assuming no program delays, Dart would expect first core drilling results to be available in the first quarter of 2012.

This follows approval in August of the 2011 exploration program and budget by the Dajing Joint Management Committee (JMC). The JMC is comprised of representatives of both Dart and its partner at Dajing, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

In addition to the spudding of the first wells, the following other activities have been completed at the Dajing project:

• 4 drilling rigs have been mobilized to site
• 3 on-site desorption units and 2 permeability testing units have been mobilized to site
• 3 work camps established on-site
• Site and road construction for 2 other exploration wells has been completed (DJD-O1E; DJD-O4E), with those wells expected to be spud within the next week

Nick Davies, Dart Executive Chairman, said, "We are now operationally underway at Dajing, which is a major milestone for Dart. Dajing has the potential to be a project of substantial scale within the Dart global portfolio, and our attention is completely focussed on executing the exploration drilling campaign diligently, quickly and safely. Dart Energy looks forward to working collaboratively with our partner, CNPC, to unlock the potential of this block."

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Noble to Drill Cyprus A Prospect in 4Q

- Noble to Drill Cyprus A Prospect in 4Q

Thursday, September 08, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Karen Boman

Noble Energy will relocate one of three deepwater rigs it is operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to drill the Cyprus A prospect during this year's fourth quarter, said Noble Chairman and CEO Charles D. Davidson at the Barclays Capital 2011 CEO Energy Conference earlier this week.

Noble said its prospect offshore Cyprus is analogous to the structures it has drilled offshore Israel, and anticipates that prospects offshore Cyprus also will contain gas. Drilling offshore Cyprus is still risky, but they basically are the same system, said Davidson.

"The prospect is an important data point, could change the dynamics further on how gas is marketed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea," Davidson said. "In our view, they have some demand for natural gas, and the scale of the projects in Cyprus will far exceed demand there."

Noble and the Cyprus government signed a production sharing contract to launch exploration activities in the 324,000-hectar economic zone southeast of the island.

According to media reports, tensions have mounted between Cyprus and Turkey over the island nation's plans to begin oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Greek Cypriots, who control Cyprus' internationally recognized government, and Turkish Cypriots are at odds over how revenue from oil and gas production will be shared. Turkey, which backs the Turkish Cypriots, said it would take action if exploration begins before the dispute can be resolved.

Noble operates approximately three million gross acres in the eastern Mediterranean, where is recently acquired additional 3D seismic data and has identified multiple prospects and leads.

The Tamar and Leviathan discoveries offshore Israel, which include 25 Tcf of gross mean resources, are the largest global deepwater gas discoveries made in the past decade. "With the discovery of Tamar, Israel became energy independent in terms of gas," said Davidson. "The discovery of Leviathan has turned Israel into a potential energy exporter."

The company is on track to commission the Tamar production facility in late 2012, with production set to begin in 2013. A rig is on location drilling development wells, and construction of the production platform is underway. The initial development phase calls for five subsea completions with 200 MMcfe/d to 250 MMcf/d per well, and process capacity expanded to 1 Bcf/d at existing onshore facility. Mari-B infrastructure will be utilized as part of this development phase. The Tamar discovery has a resource estimate of 8.4 Tcf.

Noble also is moving ahead with the Noa development, which includes a two-well tieback to the Mari-B facility. First production is expected in the second half of 2012, and will supplement Mari-B deliverability by 100 MMcf/d. Mari-B is nearing full operational reliability, with the Mari-B compression project finalized and second quarter demand up 40 percent from 2010.

"Our current production [in Israel] is extremely strong, with high demand in Israel for gas, with a very strong draw for supplies from Mari-B," Davidson said

Noble expects results in this year's third quarter from its appraisal work to further define the Leviathan resource, which is estimated to hold gross gas resources of 16 Tcf. The company will return to assess deeper stratigraphic sections of Leviathan and is evaluating development scenarios for the discovery, including domestic and export options.

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Treaty to Boost Production at Tx. Leases

- Treaty to Boost Production at Tx. Leases

Thursday, September 08, 2011
Treaty Energy Corp.

Treaty reported on its progress on the project to increase production on its Texas oil leases.

Stephen L. York, President and COO of Treaty Energy Corporation, stated, "We want our shareholders to know that our team has faced the hottest and driest summer in Texas since 1980. The extreme heat and dry climate have considerably affected ground conditions. These conditions have caused failures of equipment and electrical transformers which have led to a decline in the overall production on our existing wells."

Mr. York added, "However, the good news is that Treaty Energy's aggressive work-over plan has been able to offset the decline in production and has even greatly increased the production of the re-worked wells."

"Production on the first eight wells that have been re-worked increased from 8 barrels of oil per day to 26.5 barrels per day," explained Mr. York. He explained further, "Treaty Energy has also recently finished re-working an additional eleven wells, and after about a week of steady production, we are expecting to increase production to about 55 barrels of oil per day."

Treaty Energy has four other leases that are currently not producing as they require a work-over on the injector wells and electrical power lines. Work-over of these leases should be completed by the end of September and is expected to increase overall Texas production to 65 to 70 barrels of oil per day by that time.

Beyond the previously mentioned work-overs, Treaty Energy has 15 shut in wells spread over the Great Eight Leases that have been shut in for more than 12 months. Upon completion of all scheduled work-overs, the Company will then be able to more accurately evaluate the additional shut in wells and re-work them as necessary to bring them back into production.

Mr. York added, "The best estimate of Texas production on the currently owned and paid for leases will be 75 to 90 barrels of oil per day after the rework of the 15 shut in wells. Our goal by the end of 2011 is to be at 200 to 350 barrels of oil per day. This production number can vary based on the number of new wells that are expected to be drilled and completed. We expect to exceed 1,000 barrels per day by the end of June 2012. At $80 per barrel, this will translate to about $29.2 million in gross revenues annually from our Texas oil production alone."

CEO of Treaty Energy Corporation, Andrew Reid, stated, "I am pleased with the current production in Texas and noted that all re-works are being done from the bottom of the well to the top, including pressure testing of the tubing prior to re-installation in the wells. This type of work-over may initially cost more and require more time, however Treaty expects to avoid the higher operational costs that can be associated with stripper wells when using the traditional band-aid methods. Treaty's wells, once worked-over, will require much less maintenance compared to the average stripper wells."

Finally, Mr. Reid said, "We plan to release an update in the week of September 12th on the progress in Belize regarding the first well that we are expecting to drill later this month."

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Clough DORIS, Ichthys Execute Binding Contract

- Clough DORIS, Ichthys Execute Binding Contract

Thursday, September 08, 2011
Clough Ltd.

Clough announced the execution of a binding contract between the Ichthys Joint Venture and Clough DORIS Joint Venture, for the Ichthys LNG Project Offshore Integrated Project Management Support Services (IPMS), which has a limitation on spending until attainment of FID. Receipt of the Letter of Intent for this circa A$250 million contract was announced by Clough on August 9, 2011.

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