Noble rig preparing to drill surface hole for Santos well

The Noble Tom Prosser jack-up rig has arrived at the site and is about to drill the Santos-operated Pavo-1 well in the Bedout Basin offshore Australia.

The Pavo-1 well is located in permit WA-438-P which is operated by Santos with a 70 per cent interest while Carnarvon holds the remaining 30 per cent interest.

The Noble-owned rig was mobilised to the site late last week. Carnarvon Energy informed on Wednesday that the rig has now completed the move to the Pavo-1 well location and has concluded the jack-down and other pre-drill operations. As of 06:00 this morning the rig was preparing to start drilling the surface hole, Carnarvon said.

The rig will drill the surface hole down to around 175 metres Measured Depth (MD) and install the conductor.

After the conductor has been set and cemented in place, the rig will drill the 17 ½” hole to the planned section depth of approximately 1,000 metres MD followed by setting the 13 3/8” casing. The well will then be deepened in the 12 ¼” hole to around 3,000 metres MD before setting the 9 5/8” liner. This will provide a stable foundation for the well to drill into the deeper reservoir section.

No hydrocarbons are anticipated to be encountered in these hole sections.

The Pavo-1 well is targeting a gross mean recoverable volume of 82 million barrels of liquids and 108 Bcf of gas in the Caley Formation sands which flow tested at equipment limits of around 11,000 barrels of oil per day in the Dorado-3 well. This is an attractive prospect, having an estimated one-in-three (34 per cent) geological probability of success.

As Carnarvon holds a 30 per cent interest in this resource, meaning the net liquids resource could be similar in volume to Carnarvon’s interest in the Dorado field in a success case.

After drilling the primary Caley target, the joint venture has the option to drill into deeper stratigraphy including the Lower Archer Formation Dumont Member sands, and the Permian carbonates. Information from these intervals will be highly valuable in assessing the substantial exploration potential north and east of the Pavo prospect.

Following completion of the Pavo-1 well, the rig will drill the Apus-1 well which is located around 20km southwest of the Pavo-1 well location.