A U.S. - Australian joint venture is to begin rigging up by mid-May for a multiwell remediation program in the southern Caspian Sea off Turkmenistan.
Sundowner Offshore Services Inc., Houston, and Oil Drilling & Exploration Ltd. (OD&E), Sydney, are to work over about 100 wells this year and next under a contract with a 50-50 venture of Larmag Energy Assets Ltd., Bermuda, a unit of Larmag Investment Group, Amsterdam; and Turkmenistan's Chelekenmorneftegas (CMNG) production association, Cheleken City.
Peter Clark, Larmag Energy chief executive officer, said the workover program is planned to boost oil production on the Lam-Zhdanov Block 11 to 9,000 b/d by yearend 1994 and 15,000 b/d by yearend 1995. About 50 wells on the 950 sq km tract are producing 5,000 b/d of oil at present.
The Larmag-CMNG joint venture in April plans to begin a 2D marine seismic program on the acreage. A multiyear drilling program is to begin early next year.
Sundowner Offshore and OD&E plan to conduct workovers in Lam and Zhdanov fields with Sundowner VI, the 10th member of the Sundowner-Super Sundowner family of modular workover rigs designed to rig up in a single day. Other Sundowner units are operating in the Gulf of Mexico, Adriatic Sea, and off Australia and West Africa.
LAM-ZHDANOV BACKGROUND
Turkmenistan early in 1993 awarded Lam-Zhdanov development rights to Larmag, CMNG, and Noble Drilling Corp., Houston, for a bonus of $15.25 million (OGJ, Feb. 8, 1993, p. 38). Acreage assigned to Larmag-CMNG includes Precheleken Kupol field.
Noble is no longer a party to the deal.
Under its joint venture agreement, Larmag-CMNG is to receive 50% of future production from reworked wells on the Lam-Zhdanov tract. The joint venture is committed to spend $60 million during 5 years on the tract, plus future revenue from its 50% share of existing production.
Lam since 1978 and Zhdanov since 1972 have produced a combined 26 million bbl of oil and 117 bcf of gas. Block II's proved developed reserves at the time of the award to Larmag-CMNG were estimated at 230 million bbl of oil and 1.87 tcf of gas. Turkmenistan estimates remaining reserves in the two fields at 565 million bbl of oil equivalent.
About 30 Russian platforms have been installed on the Larmag-CMNG joint venture acreage, several of which are to be upgraded to host the Sundowner VI rig. Water around Russian platforms to host workover operations is about 50 ft deep. Wells in the two Yields have true vertical depths of 10,000-12,000 ft.
Sundowner VI's components, including modular quarters for a crew of 47, are to ship from Houston this month en route to the southeastern Caspian Sea. Sundowner Offshore and OD&E are to operate the unit from a shore base at Cheleken City.
In addition to Sundowner VI in the Caspian, Sundowner Offshore and OD&E are jointly operating a Super Sundowner rig off Australia under a contract with Esso Australia Ltd. Also, Sundowner Adriatic Rig I last September began working in the Adriatic Sea for Italy's Agip SA.
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