Oil & Gas Corporate News
Gulfsands Petroleum (LON:GPX) (Under Review) (GPX, 186.25p, ? 0.68%) announced an update on oil production in Syria. In September, Gulfsands Petroleum was instructed by the Syrian Oil Ministry to reduce production on Block 26 in line with reduced availability of crude storage capacity within the country. Production operations have consequently been impacted such that average gross production during the month of September was 14,547 bopd versus the average for the month of August of 24,112 bopd. As of October 3rd daily gross production had been reduced further and is currently steady at approximately 6,000 bopd. During this period of reduced offtake, the opportunity has been taken to undertake a complete shut-in of the Yousefieh field in order to conduct a long term field pressure build-up survey. Memory pressure gauges have been placed in all Yousefieh wells prior to the shutdown of the field on 26th September. This data acquisition exercise represents an opportunity to determine average field reservoir pressure to a level of accuracy that would not otherwise be possible to achieve when the field is under normal production conditions. Measuring reservoir pressure in this way will enable a more accurate calculation of field in-place volumes and recoverable reserves to be made. The outlook for Block 26 oil production during October remains uncertain as refinery maintenance work within the country may contribute to further temporary restrictions on production levels.
Aminex (LON:AEX) (BUY, £0.13) (AEX, 5.5p, ? 4.76%) announced that it has suspended further work on the Nyuni-2 exploration well in offshore Tanzania due to extreme drilling conditions. As previously announced the Nyuni-2 well had been drilled to 3,450 m measured depth and cased to 2,945 m. However, it was not possible to run a full suite of electric logging tools to total depth as a result of obstructions near the base of the well bore. Repeated attempts to drill out the obstructions were unsuccessful so a decision was made to cement off the lower section of the well bore and deviate around the obstructions using a side-track motor. The sidetracking operation has also proved to be highly problematic and earlier this week the mud motor and drill bit became irretrievably jammed in the well bore. Engineering advice now indicates that a further side track attempt would only have a limited chance of success. A…
