Cairn finds no oil at deeper VR-1 well target (Senegal)

Oil and gas company Cairn Energy has failed to unearth commercial quantities of oil from its exploration target at the VR-1 well offshore Senegal.

To remind, Cairn had achieved the primary objective at the VR-1 well in March, which was to appraise the nearby SNE oil discovery.

During the appraisal drilling in March, Cairn struck oil at the VR-1 well, confirming a 97-meter gross oil column with greater than expected net pay and thickest net pay of all appraisal SNE wells drilled to date.

The company then went on to drill a secondary, exploration target, deeper in the well, targeting deeper Aptian carbonate play.”

Cairn said on Thursday it had completed the program ahead of schedule and under budget following the drilling and logging operations.

Talking about the exploration target, the company said “the encountered deeper carbonate exploration targets were assessed as being non-commercial.”

The well (VR-1) was ultimately deepened to a total depth of 3,899 meters to evaluate if the underlying Aptian carbonate is a viable exploration target, Cairn said.

Talking about the VR-1 well as a whole, Simon Thomson, CEO of Cairn Energy, said: “VR-1 is the sixth successful appraisal well on the SNE field and has encountered some of the best quality reservoirs found to date.

“Resource numbers will be updated later this year following completion of appraisal operations. We look forward to commencing operations on SNE-6.”

The VR-1 is being plugged and abandoned, and the Stena DrillMAX drillship will move and begin operations on the SNE-6 appraisal and interference test well some two kilometers to the south of the SNE-1 discovery well.

Cath Norman, Managing director at FAR Ltd., Cairn’s partner in the license, said: “The results of the VR-1 well have been an overall success as the objectives of the appraisal of the SNE field at this location were met and in some cases exceeded. We see evidence at this stage of hydrocarbons in the secondary target in the limestones but at this stage, FAR’s interpretation is that these are more than likely not of economic significance although interpretation of the wireline logs and samples taken has not been completed.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff