Independent oil and gas exploration and production company CC Energy Development (CCED) plans to invest around $340 million in augmenting exploration and production facilities in its Block 3 and 4 acreage in central Oman. This is in addition to an estimated $1.3 billion already invested in the two adjoining concessions since CCED acquired operatorship of the blocks in 2009, David Wohlschlegel (pictured), Deputy Managing Director, said. Addressing the media at the annual briefing hosted by the Ministry of Oil & Gas, Wohlschlegel said the latest investment has been earmarked towards the drilling of up to 75 wells, as well as the installation of additional production facilities.
Production from the two blocks has ramped to over 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2015 from zero in 2009, underscoring CCED’s success in turning around acreage that previous operators had turned their backs on as having limited commercial potential. “Over the last 40 years, several major oil companies had drilled numerous wells on our blocks without success,” said Wohlschlegel. “There were others that did not pursue the opportunities there because they believed these blocks were limited potential, consisting of semi unconventional heavy oil prospects which would require the use of expensive advanced technology to develop. CCED took a different view and our success in exploration, appraisal and development has been the result of challenging the convention wisdom of other operators.”
As a result of these efforts, CCED has since unearthed in excess of 150 million barrels of reserves and continues to explore the two blocks, the Deputy MD said. “Since we became operators of Blocks 3 and 4, CCED has acquired more than 45 sq km of 3D and 850 km of 2D seismic,” he stated. Through the implementation of fast track developments of near discoveries, CCED managed to achieve a current output of 40,000 bpd over a short period of time. Gross production from the blocks has aggregated over 35 million barrels since 2009, he said. “This success has been achieved on the back of investment and technology, infrastructure and people,” the Deputy Managing Director said.
“We have drilled more than 179 wells of which 167 have been successful. Due to our fast internal processes, we have been able to modify well plans to take advantage of lessons learned and prioritise our development programme. As a result we now using horizontal wells with the latest stimulation technology to improve production from these complex reservoirs.” Investments in Block 3 and 4 include two permanent facilities, as well as 120 kilometres of pipeline network that carries oil to PDO Qarn Alam facilities.
