Dragon Oil Puts LAM 10/114 Well Into Production
Dragon Oil on 17 July announced that its LAM 10/114 well in the Cheleken Contract Area offshore Turkmenistan had been completed and put into production at a rate of 1,700 b/d, bringing total production in the contract area to an average of 22,000 b/d. The well was drilled from the refurbished LAM 10 platform to a depth of 4,700ms to develop shallow hydrocarbons in Zones 3 to 9 and evaluate the potential of deep reservoir Zones 11 and 12, Dragon said, adding that the well encountered hydrocarbons in Zones 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9, but not in 11 or 12. Iran’s contracted Khazar jack-up rig was skidded to drill well LAM 10/115, which has a target depth of 3,700-4,300ms. The Astra jack-up rig, contracted from Lukoil Shelf, is due to start drilling from the LAM 13 platform in September. Husain Sultan, chairman of Dragon Oil, said the company hoped “to achieve a significant improvement in production by the end of the year as per our development plan. We are committed to making the necessary investment in order to grow production even further. This includes the upgrade and replacement of existing infrastructure, installation of new infrastructure and acceleration of the drilling program.”
The Cheleken Contract Area covers 950 sq km and is operated by Dragon under a 25-year production-sharing agreement (PSA), with an optional 10-year extension. The contract area contains the Dzheitun (LAM) and Dzhygalybeg (Zhdanov) oil and gas fields, which were discovered during the Soviet era. At the end of 2005 there were 32 producing wells from seven platforms, and production averaged 19,426 b/d. Recoverable proved and probable reserves are estimated at 651mn barrels of oil and condensate, of which Dragon’s entitlement is 323mn barrels. Gross gas reserves are estimated at 3.5 tcf.
