E&D ACTION STILL SIZZLING IN YEMEN

Exploration and development action continues to set a sizzling pace in Yemen.

Among recent activity:

Lasmo plc, London, acquired a 7,395 sq km permit in the Hadramaut province.
ARCO Yemen and Shell Pecten have reached agreement to acquire a farmout on North Sanau Block 12.
A unit of Ste. Nationale Elf Aquitaine is drilling the first well on the eastern edge of the 30,000 sq km Sirr Hazar block. Elf Petroland's Sirr Hazar block in Northwest Yemen is one of the biggest in the country. The well is only about 6 miles from the boundary with the North Sanau block. Access to the remote area has been improved by completion of a road from Mukalla on the Gulf of Aden.
Halliburton Geophysical Services now has four seismic crews in Yemen to accommodate the growing number of companies taking on exploration commitments there. Halliburton Geophysical Services said its crews have had to adapt their operations to the tough terrain, using vibrators as the energy sources of seismic recording where conditions allowed but often having to resort to dynamite assisted by heliportable drill equipment. To ensure quality of seismic data collected in this harsh and largely unexplored territory, crews have been equipped with field processing systems that allow onsite evaluation of data quality and parameter testing.
A Yemeni government official said production from the Nimir Petroleum Co.'s Block 4 is expected to start up in early April at 20,000 b/d. Askar Husain, head of contracts and agreements at General Corp. for Oil & Mineral Resources, said production later will rise to 50,000 b/d. Nimir has chosen ARCO as operator for West Iyad, East Iyad, and Amal fields on Block 4. Initial development work was undertaken by contractors from the former Soviet Union.

LASMO DEAL

Lasmo Oil (Aden) Ltd. signed a production sharing contract at the end of last month for the Hood Block 35, which lies north of Canadian Occidental's prolific South Masilah block 14.

A few line miles of seismic have been shot over the Lasmo block, but there has been no drilling.

Lasmo expects to spend the rest of 1992 and the first half of 1993 acquiring seismic data. The first well is likely to spud in second half 1993.

Lasmo has a 33% stake in the block in partnership with British Gas Exploration & Production Ltd. 30%, Idemitsu Oil & Gas Co. Ltd. 15%, Coplex (Hadramaut) Ltd. 12% and Hoodoil Ltd. 10%.

ARCO FARMOUT

Subject to government agreement, ARCO will take over operatorship of North Sanau, on far northern Yemen on the borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia.

It will undertake aeromagnetic, gravity, and field surveys followed by a seismic program. Work has already begun on reprocessing World Bank and Soviet seismic data.

Coplex Resources NL, Australia, which farmed out part of its 64% holding to ARCO and Pecten, said the block is on the southern flank of the Arabian basin.

Wells already drilled on or close to the block indicate the same "layer cake" geology as in the main producing oil fields of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Coplex said.