No oil so far at Santos’ Roc South-1 well. Drilling continues

Caley and Baxter, the first two objectives at the Santos’ operated Roc South-1 well offshore Australia have failed to deliver.

Santos spudded the Roc South-1 well mid-June, with the hopes to discover and add tie-in resources to the nearby Dorado oil field, one of the largest ever oil discoveries in Australia’s North Western Shelf.

However, Santos’ partner in the project Carnarvon Petroleum said Monday that the Roc South-1 well had reached approximately 4,508 meters Measured Depth (“MD”) “with the interpretation of wireline logs indicating no producible hydrocarbons across the Caley and Baxter sands.”

Roc South-1 is an exploration well with primary objectives in the Caley, Baxter, Crespin and Milne Members of the Lower Keraudren Formation.

Despite the Caley and Baxter setback, Carnarvon is optimistic about the Crespin and Milne objectives.

Carnarvon said that, as evidenced by the results in the Dorado field, each reservoir interval is capable of being charged with different hydrocarbons and varying levels of fill.

“Accordingly, the Company believes there is sufficient potential in the deeper Crespin and Milne structures to continue drilling. The objective of the Roc South well was to determine if additional hydrocarbons existed that were capable of being tied-in and produced with the Dorado liquids (oil and condensate) and gas production facilities.

“The development plans for Dorado will not be impacted by the Roc South results in the Caley and Baxter intervals. In relation to the other exploration prospects in the area, the final Roc South-1 result is expected to assist in their refinement. However, the new 3D seismic data that is currently being acquired is expected to provide more relevant information over both the Dorado development area and a number of key prospects nearby.”

“Based on the Dorado-1 and 2 reservoir results, the Company believes there is sufficient potential in the deeper Crespin and Milne intervals to drill to the planned TD of approximately 5,100 meters MD. Operations to run a 7” liner are currently underway, after which this final section will be drilled in 6” hole,” Carnarvon said Monday.

The Dorado-1 well discovered hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in the Caley, Baxter, Crespin and Milne Members of the Lower Keraudren Formation. The Roc South-1 well is located approximately 15km northeast of Dorado-1 and 160km north-northeast of Port Hedland in the Bedout Sub-basin. The Noble Tom Prosser rig is drilling the Roc South-1 week in approximately 95 meters of water depth. Following the Roc South-1 well, the rig is scheduled to drill the Dorado-3 appraisal well.

Commenting on the Roc South-1 results so far Carnarvon Managing Director, Adrian Cook said: “Our tremendous success to date has occurred through making significant discoveries, most particularly around Dorado and Roc.”

“As we unlock this new basin on the North West Shelf we will find results that are unexpected and not as we should wish. The Roc South-1 result in the Caley and Baxter intervals is a case in point in that it will not build upon our current resource pool. That said, we should not lose focus on the fact that we have discovered a significant volume of resources to date, we are working on plans to bring the Dorado liquids (oil and condensate) into production as soon as possible and we have ongoing intentions to make new discoveries in the future.”

“We will now test the deeper sections in the Roc South-1 well before the rig moves to the Dorado-3 appraisal well where it will conduct a flow test from the Dorado reservoirs that proved successful in the Dorado-1 and 2 wells.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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