State-of-the-art seismic acquisition, processing
and interpretation techniques continue to be keys that unlock the
treasure for Forest Oil in South Africa.
Forest recently shot a 712-square-kilometer 3-D survey
offsetting its original 3-D coverage there. The firm is going through
much of the same process with the new data and will follow up with
an exploration drilling campaign, according to Forest's international
chief geophysicist, Tim Berge.
"We are planning on applying for a mining license
that will include the footprint of the two 3-D surveys and a little
padding around them, which will include the Ibhubesi Field development,"
Berge said.
"This field is by no means defined — when we go
back and map our 2-D dataset we see quite a number of anomalies
throughout the Orange River Delta," he said.
The company thinks this is a large regional stratigraphic
accumulation, and every one of these little meanders could be considered
its own field.
"We think there is potential for an eventual upside
of 48 trillion cubic feet of gas in the entire delta off South Africa
and Namibia in the Albian-Aptian and Kudu formations, and in a deepwater
structural play," he said.
On the Namibia side of the delta there is a large
field discovered years ago by Shell that's been a stranded gas resource
for some time. The field's estimated reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic
feet of gas from the Kudu Formation is a strong indication of the
Kudu's productive potential, according to Berge.
In addition, Forest has already shot a 1,000-square-kilometer
deepwater 3-D survey that covers a big structural lead at the shelf-slope
break.
"We can see big growth faults in great rollover structures,"
Berge said. "This region is still in the prospect stage — it's
an entirely different play."
Forest has 32,000 square kilometers in two blocks
in a basin that has been virtually unexplored with a documented
hydrocarbon system and multiple plays in multiple reservoirs.
The firm currently is working hard to develop a market
for its gas; with exploration finding costs of about 3.8 cents per
thousand cubic feet of reserves, Forest's Orange Basin acreage will
be increasingly important to the company.