Santos Offshore Pty Ltd, the Operator of the Winchester-1 exploration well being drilled in the Dampier Sub-basin permit WA-323-P, off W. Australia, has announced that at 06:00 hours (WST) on Tuesday, 18 June 2013, the well was at a depth of 3660m MDRT (measured depth below rotary table) and drilling ahead.
Operations over the last week have seen the cement plug drilled out and leak-off-testing of the 97/a” casing completed and drilling of the 9. 7/8″ hole section commenced. Planned operations over the coming week are to complete drilling of the 8. 1/2″ hole through the zones of interest. Winchester-1 is a deviated well that is being drilled by the Ensco-109 jack-up rig, in approximately 75m of water and to a planned total depth (TD) of 4803m MDRT. The well is now scheduled to take approximately 80 days from the 7 April spud date to reach TD.