Discover

The quest to discover new oil and natural gas reserves resulted Wednesday in the most successful lease sale in Alaska, with producers offering a total of $2.7 billion to capture a share of drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea.

Marathon Oil Co. and partner EnCana Corp. announced last week they have discovered a new wildcat natural gas well (Annapolis G-24) in deep waters about 215 miles south of Halifax offshore Nova Scotia. The well encountered about 100 feet of net gas pay over several zones that have the potential to flow, they said. It will be temporarily abandoned to allow for re-entry at a later time.

Marathon Oil Co. and partner EnCana Corp. announced Tuesday they have discovered a new wildcat natural gas well (Annapolis G-24) in deep waters about 215 miles south of Halifax offshore Nova Scotia. The well encountered about 100 feet of net gas pay over several zones that have the potential to flow, they said. It will be temporarily abandoned to allow for re-entry at a later time.

Last week’s massive blackout in the Northeast and Canada probably began in northern Ohio, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) has cautiously concluded, but it refused to lay the blame on a single utility. Analysts and investors were quick to assign blame, however, and pointed to FirstEnergy Corp.’s Ohio Edison subsidiary as the instigator.

Most of the cash market emerged from the Labor Day weekend hiatus to discover prices ranging from flat to a little more than a dime higher Tuesday, but the modest firmness was not expected to last after the energy futures complex took a dive.

Plant management and personnel were at fault in failing to discover, until it was almost too late, a leak and significant corrosion in a reactor vessel head at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, at Oak Harbor, OH, according to a report submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by plant owner FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC) last Thursday.

Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. and Calgary-based Petro-Canada said last week that they have discovered “significant natural gas flows” at the Tuk M-18 well located about 15 miles south of Tuktoyaktuk in the Mackenzie Delta of Canada’s Northwest Territories. The companies said that the M-18 was tested at restricted rates up to 30 MMcf/d and has estimated recoverable reserve potential of 200-300 Bcf.

Marathon Oil Co. and Unocal Corp. reported a significant natural gas discovery of about 90 Bcf of gross proven recoverable gas reserves on the Ninilchik Prospect on the Kenai Peninsula, approximately 35 miles south of Kenai, AK. Marathon is operator of the well and the 25,000-acre prospect with a 60% working interest, while Unocal Alaska holds the remaining 40%.

Marathon Oil Co. and Unocal Corp. reported a significant natural gas discovery of about 90 Bcf of gross proven recoverable gas reserves on the Ninilchik Prospect on the Kenai Peninsula, approximately 35 miles south of Kenai, AK. Marathon is operator of the well and the 25,000-acre prospect with a 60% working interest, while Unocal Alaska holds the remaining 40%.