IOC PR: Raptor-1 Flares gas and condensate

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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!!

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..... .....I will speculate that we have low porosity and low flow rate or they would have given us more information.

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.

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.....

.....I will speculate that we have low porosity and low flow rate or they would have given us more information.