PetE – do you know if they have reported coring in any of the wells? There should be an easily recognizable drilling break as they enter the limestone. Given the troubles and open hole above the Kapau, they may not want to take the risk. Maps made without a well are only as good as the seismic data, which in this case, are pretty awful. The geology itself is a mess and 2-D lines have built–in migration issues, not to mention the surface problems. Mapping is tough at best, even after a well. Fortunately, reef indicators can often be seen even if you can’t map location vs. depth precisely. If you’re right that we’re not seeing better porosity/perm. in this location, then yes, updip may be the answer. However, I sure would like to know if I’m in a back- or fore-reef facies. Coring could give you some answers. IF they don’t see water, isn’t a possible oil leg still alive?

'petrengr1' pid='51674' datel Wrote:

'Li'loilady' pid='51632' d Wrote:

Raptor-1 Flares Gas and Condensate on Test

November 6, 2014

Singapore and Port Moresby — InterOil Corporation (NYSE: IOC) (POMSoX: IOC) today announced that gas and condensate have been recorded at surface and directed through the flare at the Raptor-1 exploration well site.

InterOil is continuing to test Raptor-1 and clean up the well.

The Raptor-1 well has been drilled to a measured depth of 4,032 metres below the rig rotary table. The flow test is being conducted over an interval of around 330 metres of open borehole which includes around 200 metres of Kapau limestone, the target reservoir.

The Raptor-1 well in PPL 475 is about 12km west of InterOil’s multi-trillion cubic feet Elk-Antelope gas field in the Gulf Province in Papua New Guinea.

InterOil holds a 65.208174% interest in Raptor-1 and is operator. Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (TSXRE; BVCREC; BOVESPAREB) has a 12.903226% interest in the well and minority interests hold 21.8886%.

InterOil will keep the market informed of material developments.

Another non-communicating PR. These type PR’s are making me paranoid. It makes me think they have something they don’t want to tell us.

So what did we learn?
1. The top of the pay zone contains gas and condensate. So it is NOT oil.
2. They are testing a 330 meter (1,083 ft) OPEN HOLE interval. This is quite a long open hole interval to be testing so they must feel that the formation is quite stable. They will have the packer set in the bottom of the 7” casing above the long open hole section and probably a long tail pipe below the packer to facilitate killing the well when the test is completed.
3. I will speculate that we have low porosity and low flow rate or they would have given us more information. I think they have not lost circulation yet which would indicate a high permeability zone. If we had even one high permeability zone, fractures or otherwise, the well would not be “still cleaning up” . It would clean up very quickly indeed if we had a zone like the upper part of Antelope. They may have had to stimulate the open hole section with acid in order to establish flow.
4. They say the hole has been drilled to a depth of 4,032 meters (13,229 ft). In March they said the well would be drilled to a depth of 4,500 meters (14,765 ft). The top of the open hole section is at 3,702 meters (4,032 - 330). This means we could have as much as an additional 470 meters of limestone below the present TD. So an unanswered question is: Did they set the 7” casing 130 meters above the top of the pay zone or did they only find 200 meters of pay and drill 130 meters below the bottom of the pay zone?
My guess is they set the casing too high and they were still drilling in limestone when they quit drilling. If that is the case they will have the option of drilling ahead after the test if they do not recover any water. There is always the possibility that we could drill into a more porous zone as we drill deeper. Until we find water or the bottom of the limestone we will be expanding the size of the discovery as we drill deeper. And if we do not find water by the time we reach the bottom of the limestone the gas interval will be extending further down dip toward PRL-15.
5. I hesitate to mention the map they showed at http://tinyurl.com/m32z6ho page 20 since the depths on the map are so much different than the current report. However, as you can see on the map, there may be some structure up dip from Raptor-1 that is now known to be filled with gas.
6. It is possible that we drilled the wrong location and the up dip location to the northwest is where the best reef and the better porosity is located.

I wish I could be more optimistic for you but with the tea leaves presented this is the best I can do.

Have a good day!!

Quite a stretch.  Hunker down y'all.  Could take 6+ weeks to complete testing Raptor.  When testing is complete well data will be releasd.

Assuming good or bad from this PR is just that, assuming.

We shoiuld heed Pet.  There is a chance we just drilled in the wrong spot.  Which means more time to get it right.  MH did mention oil shows at Raptor back on the July roadshow which I thought was ill advised.  I don't think there were any real expectations for that here anyways but that's a card they need to hold close to the vest if they ever come upon it, at least until it is certain. That issue perhaps hurt PM and IOC more than any other years back.

On the topic of a buyout.  I would love $120 today versus where we are trading but the buyout will not come, or at least not at that price, until there is more clarity on certificiaiton.  One of the biggest assumptions for many was the certainty of how much gas is at E/A.  We were certain.  But to the potential partners and buyers of IOC or the gas itself there was clearly more skepticism.  Some real and perhaps some self serving.  While XOM appeared the ideal partner, there is and was no urgency on their part as they completed PNG LNG.  There was no urgencey for Train 3 or to secure the gas.  Perhaps buying IOC was both politically unacceptable to the PNG govt and too much of a concentrated bet at the corporate level for XOM, there are earthquakes in the region after all.  And certainly XOM's time horizon is much longer than IOC's.  Even if they bought all the acreage they couldn't explore and develop it all in an appropriate time frame.  We may never know.  Why would someone step in now with uncertainty around arbitration, no real visibility on the other pearls and no final certification of the resource at E/A?  I think it more likely we progress with TOT and then other discoceries are monetized with various partners

'Northoil' pid='51689' datel Wrote:

PetE – do you know if they have reported coring in any of the wells? There should be an easily recognizable drilling break as they enter the limestone. Given the troubles and open hole above the Kapau, they may not want to take the risk. Maps made without a well are only as good as the seismic data, which in this case, are pretty awful. The geology itself is a mess and 2-D lines have built–in migration issues, not to mention the surface problems. Mapping is tough at best, even after a well. Fortunately, reef indicators can often be seen even if you can’t map location vs. depth precisely. If you’re right that we’re not seeing better porosity/perm. in this location, then yes, updip may be the answer. However, I sure would like to know if I’m in a back- or fore-reef facies. Coring could give you some answers. IF they don’t see water, isn’t a possible oil leg still alive?

Northoil - I'm with you on the coring idea. Sidewall cores at depth intervals would certainly answer a lot of questions. Expect we will learn more shortly. Good luck !

'calaban48' pid='51676' datel Wrote:

'petrengr1' pid='51674' datel Wrote:

[quote='Li'loilady' pid='51632' dateline='1415266591']

So what did we learn?

1. The top of the pay zone contains gas and condensate. So it is NOT oil.

Please pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that a good well would first deliver gas, on top of condensates, under which there must have at one time been oil. How wrong am I?

Calaban- Yes we sometimes find oil below gas. The oil will be below the gas “if” any oil is present. Or an oil reservoir can sometimes be full of oil all the way to the top.  Most gas/condensate reservoirs just contain gas and condensate, just like we found at Antelope after a lot of searching for the phantom oil column.

The Explorationists have something they call the oil “window“. This is a depth range below which they no longer expect to find oil due to the high temperature, pressure etc. I think we may be below the “oil window” in these deeper exploration wells.

In any case I like to keep my thoughts simple. They have tested about a 1,000 feet of open hole and reported gas and condensate production. For the time being my simple mind accepts that we have discovered a gas/condensate reservoir.

'Northoil' pid='51689' datel Wrote:

PetE – do you know if they have reported coring in any of the wells? There should be an easily recognizable drilling break as they enter the limestone. Given the troubles and open hole above the Kapau, they may not want to take the risk. Maps made without a well are only as good as the seismic data, which in this case, are pretty awful. The geology itself is a mess and 2-D lines have built–in migration issues, not to mention the surface problems. Mapping is tough at best, even after a well. Fortunately, reef indicators can often be seen even if you can’t map location vs. depth precisely. If you’re right that we’re not seeing better porosity/perm. in this location, then yes, updip may be the answer. However, I sure would like to know if I’m in a back- or fore-reef facies. Coring could give you some answers. IF they don’t see water, isn’t a possible oil leg still alive?

Northoil- To my knowledge they have not reported any coring (or anything else)in the recent wells. In the Antelope and Elk wells they took both whole cores and sidewall cores. A 6” hole is a little small for sidewall coring but they probably have such a tool. It is possible that they have taken some full cores in the 200 meter interval and they could have picked up some of the shallow marine fossils in the drill cuttings.

Regarding the possibility of the oil leg down dip if we don’t find water, see my comments above to Calaban.
The possibility of finding oil declines with depth in these deeper wells.

'petrengr1' pid='51701' datel Wrote:

'Northoil' pid='51689' datel Wrote:

PetE – do you know if they have reported coring in any of the wells? There should be an easily recognizable drilling break as they enter the limestone. Given the troubles and open hole above the Kapau, they may not want to take the risk. Maps made without a well are only as good as the seismic data, which in this case, are pretty awful. The geology itself is a mess and 2-D lines have built–in migration issues, not to mention the surface problems. Mapping is tough at best, even after a well. Fortunately, reef indicators can often be seen even if you can’t map location vs. depth precisely. If you’re right that we’re not seeing better porosity/perm. in this location, then yes, updip may be the answer. However, I sure would like to know if I’m in a back- or fore-reef facies. Coring could give you some answers. IF they don’t see water, isn’t a possible oil leg still alive?

Northoil- To my knowledge they have not reported any coring (or anything else)in the recent wells. In the Antelope and Elk wells they took both whole cores and sidewall cores. A 6” hole is a little small for sidewall coring but they probably have such a tool. It is possible that they have taken some full cores in the 200 meter interval and they could have picked up some of the shallow marine fossils in the drill cuttings.

Regarding the possibility of the oil leg down dip if we don’t find water, see my comments above to Calaban.
The possibility of finding oil declines with depth in these deeper wells.

So we are at a depth of 13,329 feet. This oil window depth varies across the world depending on the oil characteristics, temperature and pressure etc. Yes, it can be much deeper in some areas - maybe the Gulf of Mexico.

Here is a comment that I pulled from an article:

"Tengiz is the world’s deepest operating super-giant oil field, with the top of the reservoir at about 12,000 feet (3,657 m) below ground."

So we may be getting into the “ball park” at 13,329+ feet.

I guess we will have to wait for MH to tell us. He is the explorationist and he should know these things about the area/region.