Offshore staff
GODALMING, UK – Hurricane Energy has updated its analysis of a 1-km (0.6-mi) horizontal appraisal well drilled earlier this year at the basement Lancaster oil discovery west of Shetland.
Well 205/21a-6 was located to benefit from a highly connected fault/fracture network and an underlying 300-m (984-ft) oil column. Results have demonstrated a good-quality reservoir that could deliver single well rates of 20,000 b/d, exceeding expectations.
The well test achieved a sustainable natural flow rate of 5,300 b/d and flow assisted via an electrical submersible pump of 9,800 b/d. Both rates were constrained by surface equipment.
The well flowed for a total of 78 hours and was shut in for a maximum of 22 hours. Shut-in pressures indicate a rapid pressure response with no observable pressure decline.
Under production conditions and with a moderate 120-psi (8.3-bar) drawdown the basement reservoir could deliver 20,000 b/d from a single well, Hurricane estimates. PVT and geochemical analysis confirm 38° API crude, consistent with previous Lancaster wells.
Tidal data and modeled well test pressure response indicate that the intervening fractured basement rock contributed to flow, as well as the seismic scale fault zones. The tidal data corroborates the pre-drill geological model and, Hurricane says, provides new analyses that confirm a permeable, well connected fracture network.
In addition, pressure response indicates that thedrilling program minimized skin damage to the near wellbore environment. There was no evidence either of barriers within the fractured basement reservoir during the test, Hurricane adds.
The well encountered additional upside from a previously undrilledJurassic-Cretaceous sandstone interval which is oil bearing, with average porosity of 16%. Further subsurface work will determine the materiality of this section.
CEO Robert Trice said: “Such a level of productivity means that an early phase of field development and commercial production could be initiated with the addition of only one more horizontal well.”
The company has opened a data room for potential farm-in partners.
09/15/2014
