Gran Tierra Energy, a company focused on oil exploration and production in South America, has completed drilling of the Dantayaco-1 exploration well in the Chaza Block in the Putumayo basin in Colombia and has said that it was unable to establish hydrocarbon flow from the Dantayaco-1 exploration well in Colombia.
Oil shows encountered during drilling and log analysis indicated potential pay in the M1 Limestone and upper Caballos formation, however, only formation water was recovered during testing. The testing operations have been suspended and the well was plugged and abandoned on January 3, 2010.
Seven exploration wells have been budgeted for the Putumayo Basin in southern Colombia for 2010. The next exploration well to be drilled will be Moqueta-1 in the Chaza Block to the north of the Costayaco Field. Drilling is expected to be initiated in early April 2010.
The testing of the T Sandstone and the underlying Caballos formation has been completed in the newly drilled Costayaco-10 development well in the Costayaco field in the Chaza Block. Both the T Sandstone and Caballos Formation tested oil as expected.
A completion string is currently being installed. The well is expected to be put into production at approximately 1,200 barrels of oil per day from the Caballos reservoir in order to support Costayaco field plateau gross production of 19,000 barrels of oil per day.
The drilling of Juanambu-2, the second development well in the Juanambu oil field, began on December 27, 2009. Drilling is expected to take approximately 30 days. Upon completion, this well is expected to be tied into existing infrastructure. The Juanambu oil field was discovered by Gran Tierra Energy in 2007.
Permitting applications, facility inspections and the testing of systems are nearly complete for the production infrastructure associated with the VM.x-1001 well in the Valle Morado block in the Noroeste Basin of northern Argentina.
The sales from VM.x-1001 are targeted to commence late January 2010 at a rate of five to six million standard cubic feet per day, priced at $2.90 per MMbtu. Volumes will be transported and processed through existing facilities. Workover and sidetrack operations on the well are scheduled for July 2010, at which time pricing may be renegotiated once new production volumes are established.