Triceratops-3... What I expect

[petrengr1]

Since we are not getting any information from IOC I have decided to make up my own drilling report.

Here is something similar to what it should look like.

 According to http://tinyurl.com/p5bttdy page 12 it appears that Triceratops-3 will be a little lower than Triceratops-2. Triceratops-2 came in at 1,363 meters (4,471 feet) drill depth. This is -948 meters sub sea. The derrick floor elevation at Triceratops-2 was 415 meters above sea level. Since we have no idea what the derrick elevation is at Triceratops-3 I will assume it is the same as Triceratops-2 or 415 meters above sea level.

Now if we look a the map at http://tinyurl.com/lod6b89 page 15 we can see the high spot northwest of where Triceratops-2 was drilled. This high spot is where Triceratops-3 is drilled, slightly off the high point of the structure. Let’s say we can expect the top of the  zone to come in at about -1,050 meters sub sea or about 100 meters lower than Triceratops-2. A guess at the drill depth might be about 1,465 meters (1,050 +415).

According to the map at http://tinyurl.com/lod6b89 page 15 the gas water contact is at about -1,490 meters sub sea. That means we should have about a 440 meter (1,444 ft) gas column at the Triceratops-3 location. All of this assumes the map is correct and the gas/water contact is the same at it was at Bwata-1.

IOC says they drilled the well to a TD of 2,090 meters (6,857 ft) which is about 185 meters (607 ft) below the gas/water contact.

We have no way of knowing what the porosity is because IOC has not said what their logs showed. As I recall the porosity at Triceratops-2 was pretty low with an average of about +/- 7% with a few streaks of higher porosity. Triceratops-3 is supposed to be in the same reservoir as the upper zone at Triceratops-2 and Bwata-1. Some of the better flow rates might have been due to fractures. All of this is probably why GLJ came up with such a low estimate for the resource volume.  Unless we have another surprise we should have a much thicker gas column at Triceratops-3 than we had at Triceratops-2 since we do not expect the well to cross a fault like Triceratops-2 did. We should probably expect to see porosity similar what we had at Triceratops-2 but let’s hope they have found the reef and the porosity will be somewhat better... maybe between 10 and 15%.

At Triceratops-2 the Government had IOC to run and cement 7” casing in the hole in order to determine what the various zones would produce. The logs looked like we had gas all the way to the bottom but the cased hole tests proved the bottom of the well was mostly water with a very thin  zone of gas at the  very top of the lower zone and 121 meters (397 ft) of gross gas column in the upper zone. As I recall the productive zones had to be acidized to establish productions. Some of the lower zones would not produce to the surface in the open hole DST’s either due to low porosity/permeability or both. IOC did not have any way to swab the zones to determine content or establish flow to the surface. Some drilling rigs are equipped with a “sand line” reel which gives the drilling rig the  capability of swabbing if necessary. I do not know if our new rig at Triceratops-3 is equipped with such a capability.

If the logs show the gas/water contact at the expected level I am hoping that IOC will cement off the water zone and test the entire remaining open hole with a packer set in the bottom of the casing which they set at the top of the pay zone. In order to get maximum flow rate the pay zone may need to be acidized. A test of this nature should have enough pressure at the top of the zone to establish flow without swabbing (I hope). I would not be surprised to see a test of the entire open hole test as much as 50 MMCFD if thier tubing size is large enough.

Now we can see how all of this compares with the actual report from IOC which I hope will be forthcoming in the near future. It has be 33 days since they advised us that they had reached TD of 2,090 meters and were preparing to log.

[Gator]

If T3 is like PRL15 where InterOil shareholders get more timely information from Oil Search, you might wish to check with Pacific Energy.

http://www.pacific.energy/en/papua-new-guinea

[petrengr1]

If T3 is like PRL15 where InterOil shareholders get more timely information from Oil Search, you might wish to check with Pacific Energy.

http://www.pacific.energy/en/papua-new-guinea

Gator- Thanks for this link. I did not know about the name change. Looks like nothing up on their site yet but they may have something out for us later. I think they gave us our only look at the log for Raptor.

[sageo]

Pet -And a very good mornining to you . Thanks for your interesting drilling report ! Good to get SOMETHING in the way of information about where (or how) our money is spent . I can understand why some of our fine folks on the board get so frustrated or downright angry when,as Schultz might say....".we(know) Get nothing" from our leader. Maybe the kindest adjective we can use to describe the situation is " elusive" .Thanks again for all your great thinking and sharing .Per "Red"...God bless .