PDVSA picks up the baton

By Radio Progreso Alternativa

HAVANA – A statement from the Cuban company Cubapetróleo (CUPET), published on Aug. 6, says that while the prospection operations conducted by PC Gulf of Malaysia and Gazpromneft of Russia established the existence of an “active petroleum system” that “could extend to other parts of the four blocs contracted” by them, it cannot be qualified “as a commercial discovery.”

“PC GULF and GAZPROMNEFT continue to evaluate the geological and geophysical information collected during the drilling of this well and in subsequent months will conduct a three-dimensional seismic survey that will cover the sectors with best prospects detected by the two-dimensional seismic survey done in 2009. This will allow surveyors to better pinpoint the potential of the contracted blocs,” says the CUPET note.

The note adds that the Scarabeo 9 platform will be transferred in the next several days to PDVSA of Venezuela to begin the drilling of the exploratory well Cabo de San Antonio-1, also in the Exclusive Economic Zone (ZEE) of Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico.

Below is the official note from Cubapetróleo, translated by Progreso Weekly.

Press release from Cubapetróleo

The past July 31 marked the end of the drilling of the underwater exploration well Catoche 1X, carried out by the petroleum companies PC GULF and GAZPROMNEFT at a final depth of 4,666 meters, in a layer of water 2,258 meters deep, from the semisubmersible platform Scarabeo 9.

The geological interpretation of the complex of geophysical recordings made in the well demonstrates the existence of an active petroleum system that could extend to other parts of the four blocs contracted by PC GULF and GAZPROMNEFT and even beyond their borders. Nevertheless, at that point, the rocks are very compact and have no capacity to deliver significant quantities of petroleum and gas, so they cannot be qualified as a commercial discovery.

PC GULF and GAZPROMNEFT continue to evaluate the geological and geophysical information collected during the drilling of this well and in subsequent months will conduct a three-dimensional seismic survey that will cover the sectors with best prospects detected by the two-dimensional seismic survey done in 2009. This will allow surveyors to better pinpoint the potential of the contracted blocs.

The Scarabeo 9 platform will be transferred in the next several days to the PDVSA [Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.] company to initiate the drilling of the exploratory well Cabo de San Antonio-1, also in deep waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico.