Omax International Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada’s Omax Resources Ltd., has executed a farm-in agreement with Amity Oil International Pty Ltd. to earn a 10 percent working interest in its 570,000 acre Iskenderun Basin project in Turkey. Amity will be the operator and drilling is expected to commence shortly.
“Not only is there a high value target in Yesiltepe but there are seven additional seismically mapped structures in the Iskenderun Basin which has a very active hydrocarbon system. Omax will continue to focus on bringing value to shareholders and maximizing existing cashflows," commented John Menzies, Omax chairman and CEO.
The Yesiltepe-1 well will test a major onshore structural prospect near the Turkish Mediterranean coast, close to substantial gas markets and crude oil handling facilities. Amity is an Australian-listed company with an impressive record in Turkey.
Amity discovered and developed the 130 Bcf Gocerler gas field in the Thrace basin 14 months after its discovery in October 2000. Initial flows exceeded 30 mmcf/d. Amity has drilled nine wells in Turkey with a 90 percent success rate. In 2003, Amity have drilled two exploration and two development wells all of which encountered economic hydrocarbons.
The Yesiltepe prospect is a high relief anticline in Miocene age sediments, similar to those at Amity's Gocerler Gasfield. The structure has been defined by 2D seismic shot by Amity early this year and reprocessed old seismic.
Eight nearby, but off-structure old wells, have tested oil and gas, or had strong shows during drilling, from stacked sandstone reservoirs in the same rock sequence which will be drilled in Yesiltepe-1. The target stacked sandstone reservoir rocks are expected to be intersected from about 250 meters to total depth of 2000 meters.
The Yesiltepe anticline is a major structure and Amity estimates that it has a "most likely case" (50 percent probability) recoverable reserve potential of 270 billion cubic feet of gas, or 140 million barrels of oil, if hydrocarbons are present. The "maximum case" (10 percent probability) is 1,028 billion cubic feet of gas or 536 million barrels of oil, if hydrocarbons are present.
Omax contracted Isis Consulting a respected Perth, Western Australian based consulting firm to undertake an audit on Iskenderun Basin acreage. This work included a review of and limited reinterpretation of the Amity and older seismic.
They specifically studied the southern portion of the structure where Yesiltepe-1 will be drilled and concluded that there was sufficient reasonable quality seismic to define a robust (90 percent probability) structural closure of three square kilometer and 260 meters of relief on the SW flank.
This SW flank constitutes 10 percent of the entire seismically defined closure. Isis calculated for this SW flank only that it could host 70Bcf of gas or 100 million barrels of oil. The well is programmed to drill to a total depth of about 2,000 meters.
The drilling program calls for setting of 20-inch conductor pipe, followed by setting of 13.375 inch diameter surface casing at 230 meters and 9.625 inch diameter intermediate casing at about 900 meters. The rig contracted to drill Yesiltepe-1 is on site and has drilled a 26-inch diameter hole with 20-inch diameter conductor casing being cemented.
The Yesiltepe-1 well is located at latitude 36 degrees 55' 38" North and longitude 36 degrees 07' 09" East, approximately 73 kilometers east of the city of Adana (population about 1.5 million) and 32 kilometers northwest of Dortoyl, a major crude oil handling center. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
