Oil and gas company Hyperdynamics is nearly finished with the most difficult portion of its Fatala-1 exploration well offshore Guinea.
The well is being drilled with the Pacific Drilling-owned drillship Pacific Scirocco, which arrived at location in early August.
Hyperdynamics said on Friday that, after placing the 36-inch conductor casing into the sea floor, the 26″ hole was drilled to 3,829 meters below sea level, the 20-inch surface casing was run and cemented into place at a depth of 3,820 meters below sea level, or 923 meters below sea bottom. “We successfully achieved a casing installation of less than one degree off vertical inclination, providing a safe and solid foundation for the installation of the blowout preventer (BOP),” said the company.
Furthermore, the BOP stack was successfully surface tested, connected to the lower marine riser package and the first joints of the drilling riser, then run through to the sea bottom; all control systems were tested and are fully functioning.
The BOP stack has been lowered onto the sea floor, latched onto the 20-inch wellhead housing and will be pressure and function tested before drilling out the 20-inch casing shoe.
Hyperdynamics further stated that the casing shoe will be leak tested to verify that the cement has been solidly set within the formation. This will be followed by drilling the 17½ inch hole to an estimated depth of 1,678 meters below sea bottom, where the 13-3/8-inch casing will be set above the potentially hydrocarbon-bearing intervals at a depth of approximately 1,980 meters below sea bottom.
“I’m pleased to report that we are nearly finished with the top portion of the Fatala-1 well, which is the most difficult and exacting portion of the well at this extreme water depth,” said Ray Leonard , President and Chief Executive Officer of Hyperdynamics.
“In the final drilling stage, we will drill the 12-1/4 inch hole through the interval that we believe holds the potential for a world-class hydrocarbon discovery,” he said.
Hyperdynamics is the operator and a 50-50 partner in this exploration project with SAPETRO, an African focused privately held oil and gas exploration and production company with a portfolio of high-quality assets in West and East Africa.