Petro-Canada to start exploration work

22 December 2006
Calgary-based Petro-Canada is to start exploration and production at three sites around the country over the first six months of next year.
Calgary-based Petro-Canada is to start exploration and production at three sites around the country over the first six months of next year.

The first programme to go ahead is block 2, in the northwest, with exploration for oil and gas to start in early 2007. The company is also set to begin the exploration and production of the newly acquired Al-Shaeer and Al-Shareefa natural gas fields in the centre of the country by mid-year.

Under the block 2 programme, two wells will be drilled in February to a depth of at least 2,500 metres each. MB Drilling Overseas, part of Oman's MB Holding Group, is the drilling contractor. Petro-Canada has also issued a request for proposals for the contract to acquire 2D seismic data over a 450-square-kilometre area in the same block. Bidders include China's BGP, Croatia's Geofizika, France's Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG) and an unidentified Turkish company. Bids are expected by mid-January.

Under its production sharing agreement, Petro-Canada is committed to investing about $8.5 million in the four-year first phase of the contract (MEED 21:11:03).

Work is also under way on a 1 million-3 million-cubic-metre-a-day (cm/d) gas treatment plant to be located in either the Al-Shaeer or Al-Shareefa fields near Palmyra. 'The joint management committee, based in London, is preparing the terms of reference for the front-end engineering and design package,' says a Petro-Canada representative. 'A tender list for the engineering, procurement and construction contract [for the plant] will be agreed by early next year.'

The Canadian company will invest $460 million-660 million in both fields and is committed to producing 2.26 million cm/d of natural gas, with the first flush due to be delivered in 2010 (MEED 10:11:06).

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