(01-30-2016, 01:51 PM)Stavros Wrote: ???? It can't be cased and cemented Singapore and Port Moresby, January 6, 2016: InterOil Corporation (NYSE: IOC) (POMSoX: IOC) has been advised by Total E&P PNG Limited (“Total&rdquo
, operator of Petroleum Retention License 15 (“PRL15&rdquo in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea, that the second planned extended well test has commenced at Antelope-5. The extended well test will flow Antelope-5 at around 50 million standard cubic feet per day for approximately two weeks before being shut-in to record the subsequent pressure build-up. Pressure gauges have been placed in Antelope-1 as an observer well. The test is expected to take approximately one month to complete. InterOil Chief Executive Dr Michael Hession said the initial flow test conducted in June 2015 provided a good indication of the minimum connected volume in Antelope; this second test aims to further support those findings. “In order to improve the certainty of the minimum connected volume, we have added additional pressure gauges and we plan to flow five times more gas than we did in our initial test last year.”
Stavros- Yes, of course they could drill horizontally like Phil did at Antelope-2. It might be a little more difficult here if they have smaller casing at the top of the reservoir. They have never said what size casing is set but OSH says we reached TD with a 6" hole. That might make one think they have 7" casing set at the top of the reservoir. They probably just drilled a 6" hole below the 9 7/8" casing.
I believe they do still have an open hole below whatever size casing they set at the top of the reservoir.
At Antelope-2 They set a 7" liner across the top of the reservoir (main gas pay) and then drilled the side track below that to test out the bottom of the reservoir. I think at the time they thought they might find oil in that part of the reservoir. A picture of the well bore may be found on http://www.interoil.com/iocfiles/documen...tation.pdf
The next question would be why would they want to drill horizontally from Antelope-5? The horizontal well will only show the type formation at that level but what we want to know is how far west the high porosity limestone and dolomite extends. Of course we would also like to know the location of the fault.
Another possibility would be to drill a high angle well from the Antelope-5 surface location. If they start building angle near the surface and point the well toward the west they could probably reach up to 2.5 km west of Antelope-5 at the bottom of the well. The well bore would be about 13,000 feet long to reach a vertical depth of 9,000 feet. That vertical depth would allow us to penetrate the gas/water contact if it is present or possibly drill through the fault if it is present at or before reaching that depth. Rig 115 drilled a vertical well at Raptor-1 to a depth of 4,032 meters (13,229 feet). So the rig might be capable of drilling such a well if it was decided to do so. Such a well would be costly and would take quite a bit more time than a vertical well.
So if they decide to drill a well to the west it is probably better to drill from a new surface location further to the west of Antelope-5.
I may have more to say about the elusive western fault in a later post. It is possible that IOC has enough data to convince the partners (and the engineers who will calculate the resorce volume for certification) that the fault is truly a couple of km's further west than was previously thought. If so the JV may decide to go to certification after completing Antelope-6.
