RE: East Zharkamys -- 455,000 Acres!!The size of this license, at 1845 square kilometers (455,000 acres) is remarkable. It could move Arawak into the league of a major independent.
I hope the company posts a legible location map soon so all can get a true sense of how large and potentially important that this license is. [hopefully better than the lousy map of Akzhar on their website]
It would also be very helpful if Arawak would provide the reserves as determined by the Russians, the drilling history in the license area, and the key seismic lines, so we can get a better sense of what this license might mean for the company.
As Arawak duly noted in the PR, this is a deep subsalt area, and research indicates that it is part of a large geologic block that has been one of the most productive in Kazakhstan.
While Arawak cited a couple of nearby fields, it understated the large oil and gas-condensate fields were discovered in the rocks in the geologic block of which this license is part, including the Eastern Akzhar, Alibekmola, Kenkiyak, Kozhasai, Laktybai, Mortuk, Tereshkovo, Teresken, Urikhtau, Zhanatan and Zhanazol fields.
Per "The Eastern Flank of the Caspian Basin: Sedimentary Complexes and Sedimentation Conditions in the Early–Middle Carboniferous by
A. I. Konyukhov, B. K. Baimagambetov, and A. N. Kan. Lithology and Mineral Resources, 2006, Vol. 41, No. 6, pp. 530–546. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2006. Original Russian Text © A.I. Konyukhov, B.K. Baimagambetov, A.N. Kan, 2006, published in Litologiya i Poleznye Iskopaemye, 2006, No. 6, pp. 592–610.
"The Zharkamys block is one of the largest structures
of the eastern flank [of the Pericaspian basin]. Its dimension (at 7.5 km contour line) is 90×50 km. The top of this NE- to SW-striking
swell is outlined by the 7-km contour line. The analysis of seismic materials and deep drilling data allows us to subdivide the Zharkamys Swell into three (Zhanazhol,Tortkol, and Zharkamys) tectonic zones. In each of these zones, the top of the Paleozoic subsalt blocks dip toward the central depression in the form of steps and the structures are complicated by near-meridional arcshaped
uplifts (Tortkol, Laktybai, Karatuybe, and others). ...
"CONCLUSIONS
The end of the Devonian and beginning of the Carboniferous
were marked by important tectonic deformations
that affected, first, the eastern flank of the Caspian
Basin and then its central areas. This is testified by
the graywacke composition and enormous thickness of
the terrigenous complex accumulated on the Zharkamys
Swell and adjoining structures. ... This foredeep was later
transformed into an internal deep, the development of
which was accompanied by an irregular subsidence of
large areas of the Earth’s crust at the eastern periphery
of the basin and the consequent formation of a deepwater
trough at the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary.
The trough was bounded in east by a chain of uplifts
stretching along the collision zone. The narrow shelf
and rather steep submarine slope, which formed at the
crest and on the western limbs of these uplifts, became
depocenters of terrigenous and later carbonate sediments
for a long time. The apron of terrigenous sediments,
which included talus fans, mountain river deltas,
and grain and turbidity flows, gradually extended
toward the deep-water trough. This material turned into
the substratum, on which carbonate shoals and organogenic
buildups started to develop at the margin of the
paleoshelf in the second half of the Early Carboniferous.
In the Middle Carboniferous, lagoons and tidal
flats of the littoral zone became the principal zones of
accumulation of carbonate sediments. The sealevel fall
in the Bashkirian time was accompanied by the partial
destruction of carbonate buildups and accumulation of
bioclastic and oolitic carbonate sediments. The growth
of the carbonate buildups was renewed in the early
Moscovian time. The formation of the carbonate platform
at the eastern flank of the carbonate platform was
interrupted by a new phase of tectonic movements in
the early Podolian time. These movements terminated
one of the most important stages in the Paleozoic history
of the Caspian Basin that predetermined the formation
of the principal petroliferous complex in its eastern
periphery."
At 455,000 acres, it may be that Arawak has hit a towering home run with the acquisition of this license. We need more data to truly understand the significance.