We have heard results from some of the wells mentioned in the "nineteen second half 2010 wells to watch" article of 28 July, and have a few more to add to the pot.

In the North Falklands Basin, Rockhopper Exploration's Ernest prospect turned out to be dry however Rockhopper Exploration is now concentrating very much on the all important flow test of the Sea Lion discovery.

Still in the North Falkland Basin, Desire Petroleum will get its hands on the Ocean Guardian rig after Sea Lion and is expected to drill three or four wells back to back, the first of which will be Rachel.

Caza Oil and Gas had a boost to its share price when it reported a "potentially significant" gas discovery at its Bongo prospect onshore Texas. It will be a few months before fraccing equipment will be in place to test the well. In the meantime, Caza will keep the excitement going as it expects to spud the Arran exploration well, located in Louisiana, in September.

Cove Energy reported that the Ironclad 1 exploration well, offshore Mozambique, had encountered thirty-eight meters net of oil and gas saturated sands. Although the operator Anadarko is reported to have said it is likely to be uncommercial, the oil encountered in the Ironclad well is the first documented occurrence of liquid hydrocarbons in deepwater offshore East Africa. The drillship will now drill the Barquentine prospect.

Kea Petroleum has a 10% interest in the Tuatara-1 exploration well in the Taranaki Basin, offshore New Zealkand, which has been plugged and abandoned as dry.

Petroceltic International's Oryx-1 exploration well, in Tunisia, has been plugged and abandoned as dry. The rig is moving to drill the Sidi Toui-4 well.

In the North Sea, Serica Energy's Oates exploration well, operated by Premier Oil, was dry. Serica will be hoping for better luck from its 30% interest in a two well exploration programme, Dambus and Marindan, kicking off in early September, in the Kutai PSC, offshore East Kalimantan in Indonesia.

New wells to watch are:

Endeavour International expects the operator, Nexen, to spud the West Rochelle prospect in blocks 15/26b and c in the next week. If successful West Rochelle could be tied back to the Rochelle field facilities.

Valiant Petroleum has spud the Viola North prospect in central North Sea Block 30/18. The 60 day well is targeting prospective resources in the 63 to 191 million barrels of oil equivalent range. Valiant has also suggested that Viola North may be followed up, in 2011, with a second exploration well, Viola South.

Following the Catcher discovery on North Sea Block 28/9, Encore Oil, Nautical Petroleum and Premier Oil are very keen to drill up to four more wells on the block targeting both exploration prospects and further appraisal of the Catcher discovery itself. A rig has not been yet secured but if a contract can be signed we could see drilling this side of Christmas and possibly a lot sooner than that.

Petro Matad has decided to play it safe by changing the location of the Davsan Tolgoi - 2 well to within the Davsan Tolgoi prospect 930 metres from the DT-1 well rather than target the separate Davsan Tolgoi West structure.

So, of the original nineteen wells to watch we have two discoveries and four dry holes, with thirteen results yet to come. We have also added another likely six wells to the pot, so we still have a lot of near term drilling newsflow to keep a close eye on.

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