Australia: Quadrant moves ahead with Phoenix appraisal

Australian oil and gas company Quadrant Energy has made progress with drilling operations on the Phoenix South-2 appraisal well, located in WA-435-P exploration permit off Australia.

Quadrant, the operator of the exploration permit with 80% interest, started drilling operations at the Phoenix South-2 well at the end of October.

The Phoenix South-2 well is 160 kilometers northeast of Port Hedland and 2 kilometers east of the Phoenix South-1 oil discovery well.

Carnarvon Petroleum, Quadrant’s partner with the remaining 20% interest, said on Friday that the Phoenix South-2 well was drilled to around 4,625 meters measured depth in a 12 1/4” hole and was drilled through the Barret formation, and into the first 50 meters of the Hove formation.

Carnarvon said that the well is currently running wireline logging tools over the Barret formation. The company added that Phoenix South-2 well was drilled through the Barret Sandstone where it encountered strong hydrocarbon shows across good reservoir intersections demonstrating an active petroleum system.

While wireline operations are yet to be completed, preliminary logging data shows that the Barret Sandstone does not contain a live hydrocarbon column within the fault block intersected by the Phoenix South-2 well. The Phoenix South Barret oil resource was interpreted to contain two separate fault blocks – the first fault block is where oil was discovered by the Phoenix South-1 well and the second fault block was intersected by Phoenix South-2.

The company explained that the initial consequence of this is that it will likely reduce the range of volume estimates in the Barret Sandstone (light oil) in the Phoenix South structure to approximately two thirds of the range previously reported in November.

Carnarvon added that the primary target for the Phoenix South-2 well, the Caley Sandstone, is targeting the same gas and condensate that flowed at prolific rates in the nearby Roc-2 well. According to the company, this section would be intersected in mid to late December 2016, and the prospectivity of the Caley Sandstone would not be affected by the results in the Barret Sandstone.

Going ahead, intermediate wireline logging, including pressure testing, would be undertaken across the Barret Sandstone to confirm the interpretation of the preliminary logging data. Following the wireline evaluation, 9 5/8” casing will be set in the well and drilling will continue in 8 1/2” hole to the primary target in the Caley Sandstone.

The Ocean Monarch rig is expected to take around three to four weeks to complete the wireline evaluation, set the casing, drill the final hole to a measured depth of approximately 5,500 meters and evaluate the Caley Sandstone with wireline logging tools.