IOC's Plan for Future Appraisal and Exploration Drlling

[petrengr1]

How should we proceed with our Exploration and Appraisal Program?

Frequently when I write about what I think IOC needs to do I mention that we need to get adequate seismic data on prospects before we drill. (They are now obtaining a lot of seismic data.) Also that we need to find some good porosity, preferably in a reef setting. We would like to see high porosity reef limestone and dolomite. This is what is needed to find large reserves of gas/condensate or oil. Identify those sweet spots and then drill.

Here is what Dr. Hession had to say:

“Michael Hession - Chief Executive Officer, Director and Member of Reserves Committee
All right. That's another very good question. We've got a lot of focus now on these discoveries, basically, it's been around Elk-Antelope. Let me just state at the moment, when you talk about it, the fact is that we've only got 1 well in Raptor, 1 well in Bobcat. And therefore, they're not yet in any way, shape or form fully mature. We are shooting seismic at the moment, and it's all about pursuit of the reef, Neil. And in the past, it's a bit of a key to the future. And towards early days, they obviously found Elk, and once they found Elk and established a carbonate buildup or established a carbonate, they went searching for the reef and then obviously hit the reef in Antelope. That's pretty much the way we're going to do it with respect to Triceratops and Bobcat. And there's been a lot of excellent acquisition of seismic, which has given us -- but we're inclined to the positive on the pursuit of the reef, so that's quite exciting. But on Raptor, I don't want you to forget there's more liquid in Raptor, and there's a potential there for some serious condensate yield as we did in the test. We did actually deliver or receive condensate per surface, so there's an added positive twist to Raptor in that space. Now Triceratops, you'll be well aware we're out there now to prepare the site, and we're moving the rig up to the appraisal. You can see that, that's got the potential to be upside possibly 2 Tcf, but we're looking at 1 Tcf at the moment. That's a very commercial tieback, a very commercial tieback into Elk-Antelope. So it's all about understanding the geology, making sure we get the right seismic, making sure that we actually pursue the right reservoir, I mean, [indiscernible]. We've got to pursue the dolomite, and we've got to pursue the reef buildup, and that's happening very successfully in our site. We'll be doing that sort of modus operandi for Bobcat and Raptor and Triceratops, and then it comes down to distance to Elk-Antelope. And they're all absolutely tied back to Elk-Antelope. They're all very positive.”

So we are getting more seismic at Raptor and Bobcat to find what we hope will be reef type porosity with dolomite and/or high porosity limestone. Then hopefully we will drill a “sweet spot”.  I think we have adequate seismic at Wahoo and Triceratops for the  time being. After we drill the wells at Wahoo and Triceratops we may need to get more seismic for future wells.

When we drilled Antelope-1 we had high porosity dolomite at the top and a  lower porosity limestone toward the bottom. When we drilled Antelope-2 and Antelope-3 we had a high porosity limestone at the top, then a high porosity dolomite with the lower porosity limestone at the bottom.

Here is where Dr. Hession said we had all three types of reservoir rock at Antelope-5:

“The 3 main reservoir zones encountered in previous Antelope wells are all also present in Antelope-5. In particular, the thickness and quality of the dolomite zone, which is between the porous upper and lower limestone reservoir units, is of superior quality at this location, with porosity of up to 25%. These are all positive indicators and continue to give us confidence that Elk-Antelope will supply a multi-train development.”

We will only have about 1,000 feet of pay/gas column at Antelope-4 but it should contain some high porosity limestone at the top but, according to the GLJ map, it may be in an area that contains little or no dolomite. The drill cuttings, cores and logs will tell the tale.

The Annual Information Form tells us that they have used a geophysical technique that I don’t think they have used before i.e. Magnetotellurics.

Here is a quote from the AIF: “In 2014, we acquired seismic data across a number of leads during the Zebra seismic program targeting PPL 476 and across the Antelope field in PRL 15 during the Antelope South (formerly Antelope Deep) appraisal program. We also commenced a geophysical survey (Magnetotellurics) over the Antelope field in PRL 15, Antelope South prospect in PRL 15 with survey extensions into PPL 476, and Mule Deer lead in PPL 475.”

It is interesting that they were looking at Mule Deer in PPL 475 and extensions into PPL 476. If you look at  http://tinyurl.com/n4tcq8g page 12 you will see that Mule Deer in the Northwest corner of PRL 15 extends into PPL 475. You will also see three new prospects south of Antelope South that extend into both PPL 475 and PPL 476. PPL 476 is East of PRL 15.

You should Google “Magnetotellurics” to see how this works.

[ArtM72]

Magnetotellurics is simply the long way to spell "magic".

[sageo]

Thanks Pet. Great to hear from you again ! Sure liked your comments on Mule Deer. Imho,adds a good" chunk " of potential gas to PRL 15 as well as ppl 475. Good luck ( and more).