Tap Oil Limited (“Tap”) provides the following update on the Finucane South-1 exploration well, offshore Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia.
Location/Proposed Depth
The Finucane South-1 well is located in permit WA-191-P, in the northern end of the Carnarvon Basin. The preliminary well location is latitude 19° 18` 17.216¨ S and longitude 116° 45` 30.025¨ E
Progress
The Stena Clyde semi-submersible drilling rig is on location and the well spudded at 4:15am on Tuesday, 3 May 2011. The well has been drilled to 203m MDRT and the current operation at 0600 hrs Wednesday, 4 May is preparing to run 30” casing.
Forward Plan
After the 30” casing is cemented and blowout preventers (BOPs) installed and tested the well will be drilled to the intermediate 13 3/8“ casing depth at approximately 2036m MDRT.
Finucane South-1 is planned to take approximately 20-25 days from spud to reach a final total depth of approximately 3,500m. Upon completion of evaluation the well will be plugged and abandoned in the normal course of offshore operations.
Background
The Finucane South prospect is located at the northern end of the Carnarvon Basin, approximately 15km east of the Mutineer facility. Finucane South-1 will be drilled to identify additional resources to supplement the discovered resources contained in the adjacent Fletcher Field. Tap estimates the Finucane South prospect has a potential gross mean recoverable oil volume of 8 million barrels.
Finucane South is a moderate-sized structural closure mapped at the base of the Cretaceous regional seal. The underlying Late Jurassic Angel Formation primary target will be intersected at approximately 2,960m below sea level. Water depth at the well location is approximately 140m. Finucane South-1 will be drilled 2km SSW of the Finucane-1 well (1978) which intersected oil shows at the top of the Angel Formation despite having been drilled off structure.
Based on Finucane South-1’s proximity to other wells in the area (notably Finucane-1 and the Fletcher oil wells) plus its coverage by reprocessed 3D seismic, the risk attached to drilling can be categorised as low-moderate.
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Source:Tap Oil , May 4, 2011; Image:Keppel Fels