Page 33: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2020)

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Source: © lidiia/AdobeStock expected to start in July and, if successful, is expected to be something big.

Cyprus

Cyprus has been under the exploration spotlight and it’s still interesting, says Latham. There could be 4-5 deep water wells here in 2020. Eni hopes to drill two to three, which could include its second well on Block 6, in 2500m water depth, another on Block 8 later in the year, in about 1000m water depth, and potentially Eratosrhenis, also on

Block 8, in 1000m.

Total is set to drill on Block 11 in summer, in 1800m, while

Exxon is lined up to drill in Block 10 on the Anthea-1 pros- pect in 2000m water depth. This is an area that’s already ripe for commercialization with more to come, says Latham.

Lebanon

Total started drilling on Lebanon’s ?rst offshore well, Byb- los-1 in Block 4 in March, using Vantage Drilling’s Tungsten

Explorer drillship. It’s a big gas prospect and could be fol- lowed by a second exploration well in Block 9 later this year.

Asia Pacific

Myanmar

Following a spat of discoveries by Woodside, Mynmar fell quiet. Now, Thai ?rm PTTEP, with Total, is drilling Shwe

Nadi-1 in 2000m water depth.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, OMV’s Tawhaki well, spudded in January by the COSL Prospector rig, in 1300m water depth in the

Great South Basin – a frontier basin – found no hydrocarbons in the target reservoir. OMV then decided to plug and aban- don the well.

Other

Kaietur Block, called Tanager-1. This will be in 3000m, push-

Azerbaijan ing the drilling depths seen in this country.

While shallow, in comparison with some of the deepwater wells being drilled globally, BP’s 624m water depth Shafag

North Africa, Med,

Asiman well is deep for the Caspian Sea, 125 km (78 miles)

Middle East to the South-East of Baku, Azerbaijan. It’s also a huge pros- pect, potentially containing 5 billion boe of gas condensate.

Algeria

Algeria has been promoting its offshore for a long time, but It’s already spudded but may take some time to drill, being a 7000m deep well, being drilled using Caspian Drilling Com- there’s been little exploration. Now, Eni is planning the Oaze- 1 well in 1400m in partnership with Total and Sonatrac. It’s pany’s Heydar Aliyev semisubmersible drilling rig. march/april 2020 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 33