Quadrant makes gas and condensate discovery in Phoenix well

Australian oil company Quadrant Energy has made a gas and condensate discovery offshore Australia.

The Phoenix South-2 well, within the WA-435-P exploration permit in the North-West Shelf of Australia, penetrated a definitive hydrocarbon-bearing interval at or near the primary Caley target.

This well was appraising the Phoenix South-1 oil discovery, made back in August 2014, and was also evaluating similar structures to the gas-condensate discoveries of Roc-1 and Roc-2.

The equity interest holders in the permit are Quadrant Energy, the operator with 80% interest, and Carnarvon Petroleum with the remaining 20% interest.

Carnarvon informed on Monday that the appraisal well, spud in November, drilled an estimated 39 meter hydrocarbon-bearing zone between approximately 5,176 and 5,215 meters with significant gas influx and elevated reservoir pore pressures.

The well was unable to assess as much as 185 meters of additional potential hydrocarbon bearing Caley reservoir beneath 5,215 meters due to the higher than anticipated pressures being encountered, Carnarvon said.

Encouragingly, the company added, higher formation pressures typically support both larger volumes and higher gas and condensate flows rates over a given reservoir. They also require a different well bore design from that used in this well. Accordingly, for safety reasons, no further drilling and formation evaluation can occur in the current well bore.

Carnarvon and Quadrant will now assess these results and consider the most appropriate forward plan for assessing the entire Caley zone of interest.

Carnarvon’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Cook, said: “We are very encouraged with the results of this gas and condensate discovery and feel confident there is a significant amount of potential still to be assessed in the Caley formation beneath the current wellbore. The extent of the increase in reservoir pore pressure observed while drilling into the Caley formation could indicate a hydrocarbon body larger than any that we have previously encountered in the basin and even larger than we were expecting pre-drill.

“We’ve taken another very important step in unlocking this new basin and we certainly look forward to further clarifying its potential as our forward work programs are finalized. In the near term, we will work with the operator on the next phase of drilling in this and the other target structures in our Phoenix and Roc permits. The Carnarvon team will also take the opportunity to update the resource estimates for the Caley sandstone with this new information.”