From Houston (BN): In the Gulf of Mexico regulators have green-lighted Cobalt’s plan for its own Anchor exploration well immediately south of Chevron’s Anchor (32/20) discovery. Cobalt’s plan calls for two wells in Green Canyon 850 and six wells in GC 851. Drilling would begin in October and continue at the rate of one 160-day well per year out through 2024. Oil targeted is 26°API. The site is in 1,980 m about 330 km south-southwest of New Orleans. Cobalt is sole owner of the two leases. Chevron’s highly touted Anchor discovery is in GC 807, just a few kilometers to the north. In an early exploratory filing, Chevron reported that oil to be 35°API.

Shell has won approval of a plan for further exploration of its Oregano Field, which is tied back to the Auger tension-leg platform. The plan calls for two 180-day wells and a sidetrack in 1,030 m in GB 559 about 363 km southwest of New Orleans. The first well would be drilled, possibly sidetracked, and completed this year. The second well is a backup to be drilled and completed in 2017, if appropriate. Oil targeted is 39.5°API. Shell is sole owner.

Stone has received a conditional OK for a revised plan to explore its Derbio prospect in Mississippi Canyon 72. The plan calls for one 49-day well in 574 m about 183 km southeast of New Orleans. Oil targeted is 35°API. Stone is owner and operator of most of MC 72. But rights down to 4,085 m are held by a partnership of Stone 10%, Nexen 30% and M21K 60% with M21K’s parent—Energy XXI—designated as operator.

PGS has begun a 3-D seismic survey over about 2,600 sq km in blocks 2312 and 2412A offshore Namibia for Chariot Oil & Gas. Chariot said following the analysis of its survey of about 1,700 line km of 2-D seismic data acquired on the northwestern flank of the licence in 2015, it has identified several significant additional leads within the Upper Cretaceous deepwater clastic turbidite system.

Tullow Oil is carrying out a 30-day, 2-D seismic survey over 3,000 km off the south coast of Jamaica with the BGP Challenger. Following interpretation of the data, a decision will be taken on whether to progress to a 3-D seismic programme taking six to nine months to acquire.

Lundin Petroleum’s exploration well 6407/10-4 on the Lorry prospect on the northern part of the Frøya High in the southern Norwegian Sea has come up dry. The well was drilled about 17 km northeast of the VNG operated Pil and Bue (32/18) discoveries in the Halten Terrace. The main target was to test the Upper Jurassic pinchout play, and prove presence of hydrocarbons in the Rogn Formation. The Upper Jurassic was encountered but with no development of Rogn reservoir. The well has been plugged and abandoned.

Fugro’s Seafloor Drill 2 (SFD2) has successfully completed a multisite investigation across the North West Shelf of Australia, encountering variable calcareous sediments and delivering results to support a jackup drilling campaign. The work was performed in water depths up to 112 m. Ian Finnie, Fugro’s Integrated Geosciences’ lead, said, “Seafloor Drill 2 has proved to be ideally suited to the calcareous sediments that we have around Australia and is a game changer in Fugro’s ability to support the offshore industry in Western Australia and Southeast Asia. This drilling technology significantly enhances Fugro’s fully integrated geoscience service from optimally scoping data acquisition through successful execution and then into engineering design and construction support.”

Faroe Petroleum has spun the bit in Kvalross exploration well 7224/2-1 I the Barents Sea off Norway. The probe is located to the south of OMV’s significant Wisting and Hanssen oil discoveries. The well will test two independent targets: the Kvalross prospect with significant oil and gas resource potential within Lower Triassic Klappmyss Formation clinoform reservoir and the Kvaltann prospect, which has additional oil potential within a Mid-late Triassic Snadd Formation channel. OMV’s Wisting Central (31/9) remains the only substantial discovery so far in the Hoop High area, where Hanssen was a modest oil find and Statoil’s Apollo (31/8) well was dry.

Searcher Seismic will kick off Phase 2 of the Silver-Eye Broadband 3-D survey in the Barents Sea off Norway in April. Phase 1 of acquisition was completed in September 2015 with data processing revealing promising results for both conventional and unconventional play models, the company said. Jan Gunnar Opsal, country manager for Searcher Seismic, Norway, said the survey extension covers existing discoveries and vacant acreage within the Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) area. “Searcher is excited to be expanding our 3-D library in the Barents Sea and to offer high-quality data for evaluating this area of the Hammerfest Basin in the APA, 2017,” Opsal added.

Offshore