Wahoo

[Palm]

Well if you look at how MH cut himself off in his last sentence, ".... on resource side during... at the appropriate time." Maybe he was going to say "...during the AGM."

Who knows? They'll tell us when things are complete in their minds.

[calaban48]

Meanwhile, the PPS dances to the quirky tune of the manipulators.
I ain't folding. Good news is on the jungle drums, methinks. Best to all aboard. It's just not a three-hour tour.

[petrengr1]

From an earlier post:

 “The closest IOC well to Wahoo was Black Bass-1. It was drilled to a depth of 5,953 feet. Black Bass-1 was spud on Apr. 25, 2005 and was completed by July 18, 2005.”

That is about 84 days and they were probably drilling in a less problematic area and did not run down-hole deployment valves which takes time. They set 9 5/8” casing at 1,178 feet and 7” casing at 3,100 feet and did not run casing in the bottom 2,853 feet of the hole. So, at Wahoo we will be doing a lot of work that was not done at Black Bass-1 and, therefore, we should expect it to take a longer time.

The second and third Qtr. MD&A for 2005 indicates that the cost to drill Black Bass-1 was about $7 million using a contract rig.

The presentation at http://tinyurl.com/ldbgxm9 page 12 indicates Wahoo-1 should take 60 days and cost $50 million using a Company owned rig (Rig 3).

[johnwgrant]

From an earlier post:

 “The closest IOC well to Wahoo was Black Bass-1. It was drilled to a depth of 5,953 feet. Black Bass-1 was spud on Apr. 25, 2005 and was completed by July 18, 2005.”

That is about 84 days and they were probably drilling in a less problematic area and did not run down-hole deployment valves which takes time. They set 9 5/8” casing at 1,178 feet and 7” casing at 3,100 feet and did not run casing in the bottom 2,853 feet of the hole. So, at Wahoo we will be doing a lot of work that was not done at Black Bass-1 and, therefore, we should expect it to take a longer time.

The second and third Qtr. MD&A for 2005 indicates that the cost to drill Black Bass-1 was about $7 million using a contract rig.

The presentation at http://tinyurl.com/ldbgxm9 page 12 indicates Wahoo-1 should take 60 days and cost $50 million using a Company owned rig (Rig 3).

Now there's inflation for ya' !!!

[petrengr1]

Extremely interesting and helpful, Pet, even for a non-industry guy like me. Thanks! Why would they not have considered Black Bass a "discovery", just couldn't confirm enough gas at that point and needed to drill another well at structural highs first? Do you think based on your analysis of Black Bass that issues such as these explain and justify the delay we are seeing? Given the experience with Black Bass, shouldn't they have foreseen its taking longer? You still see a very high probability of a material discovery, right?

Getit- At the time they said they did not have a “commercial”  discovery. As you know it takes quite a bit of gas to justify an LNG plant and the associated development. That was their first well of the planned 8 exploration wells and I think they were looking for oil for the refinery as a cheaper way to establish commerciality. Also they had limited funds and were watching their costs closely.

I think they used all of the information they gained at Black Bass-1 as well as all of the other wells in the area to design their drilling program for Wahoo-1. They knew about the over pressured shale, the unconsolidated and over pressured Talama formation and lot of other information that we have not seen.
I am sure they took everything they knew into consideration when designing their drilling program. They probably had some things happen that they didn’t expect as well. If they drill another well at Wahoo they will learn from this first well and the next well should be drilled more quickly.

Yes, I still have high hopes of establishing a commercial discovery at Wahoo. I expect to hold on to those hopes until we hear from the Company.... a commercial discovery or otherwise.

[sageo]

From an earlier post:

 “The closest IOC well to Wahoo was Black Bass-1. It was drilled to a depth of 5,953 feet. Black Bass-1 was spud on Apr. 25, 2005 and was completed by July 18, 2005.”

That is about 84 days and they were probably drilling in a less problematic area and did not run down-hole deployment valves which takes time. They set 9 5/8” casing at 1,178 feet and 7” casing at 3,100 feet and did not run casing in the bottom 2,853 feet of the hole. So, at Wahoo we will be doing a lot of work that was not done at Black Bass-1 and, therefore, we should expect it to take a longer time.

The second and third Qtr. MD&A for 2005 indicates that the cost to drill Black Bass-1 was about $7 million using a contract rig.

The presentation at http://tinyurl.com/ldbgxm9 page 12 indicates Wahoo-1 should take 60 days and cost $50 million using a Company owned rig (Rig 3).

Now there's inflation for ya' !!!

But,we must remember as we are told almost every day,that our inflation rate is only about 2% (according to our Fed). I'm sure they arrive at that # because they never do any of the following: buy food,buy gas,pay any college tuitions,go to a dentist or pay any hospital charges......let alone drill a o/g well.  Go figure!

[ArtM72]

From an earlier post:

 “The closest IOC well to Wahoo was Black Bass-1. It was drilled to a depth of 5,953 feet. Black Bass-1 was spud on Apr. 25, 2005 and was completed by July 18, 2005.”

That is about 84 days and they were probably drilling in a less problematic area and did not run down-hole deployment valves which takes time. They set 9 5/8” casing at 1,178 feet and 7” casing at 3,100 feet and did not run casing in the bottom 2,853 feet of the hole. So, at Wahoo we will be doing a lot of work that was not done at Black Bass-1 and, therefore, we should expect it to take a longer time.

The second and third Qtr. MD&A for 2005 indicates that the cost to drill Black Bass-1 was about $7 million using a contract rig.

The presentation at http://tinyurl.com/ldbgxm9 page 12 indicates Wahoo-1 should take 60 days and cost $50 million using a Company owned rig (Rig 3).

Now there's inflation for ya' !!!

But,we must remember as we are told almost every day,that our inflation rate is only about 2% (according to our Fed). I'm sure they arrive at that # because they never do any of the following: buy food,buy gas,pay any college tuitions,go to a dentist or pay any hospital charges......let alone drill a o/g well.  Go figure!

My take on the $50 million is that it was a nice, round, conservative number to put on a slide.  I believe most of IOC's recent wells were around $30 million, other than Antelope 2 which had a several thousand foot horizontal component.  When you look at the Wahoo site pictures, which looks a lot like rural southern Louisiana, it is hard to imagine Wahoo's cost would approach Antelope 2's unless something goes seriously wrong.

[johnwgrant]

If it tuns out the Wahoo drilling was delayed because of problems with the rig, I'm going to be seriously miffed with InterOil. They have owned the rig for how many years, spent tons of money on refurbishing it, did some test drilling in Port Moresby, and then let it set idle for .... ???

There is no excuse for that rig NOT being in top condition... We shall see...

[kommonsents]

Problems can happen and rigs or anything else mechanical can fail, even with new. Haven't you ever heard the expression, "Shit happens!"?

[Dr. Wu]

Does anyone find it interesting that Interoil has posted this article, which espouses the potential success and size of Wahoo, to its corporate website?  I'm not playing this record backward for a hidden meaning, but it does strike me as curious at this important juncture of drilling.