The company told the market yesterday that it has suspended the Orallo North-1 well as a future coal seam methane pilot well, after drilling a total depth of 399m on the weekend.
Interpretation of wireline logs suggests the well had intersected 19m of coal between the casing point at a depth of 134m to total depth.
“The well had high water flows while air drilling, estimated at 1800 barrels per day, including substantial connection gas which built up with depth and produced a 2-metre flame when lit at 360 metres,” Bow said.
“The preliminary results of Orallo North-1 suggest the Orallo area has thick gassy coal seams and the next stage of exploration will require core hole drilling with controlled and calibrated desorption of the coals to quantify gas contents to confirm this and as part of the reserve certification process.”
Now the JV intends to drill the third optional CSM pilot well, Carnarvon-1, located about 16km east of Orallo North-1 and 19km southeast of Taringa South-1.
With a planned total depth of 270m, the well is designed to determine depths and coal thickness in the eastern flank of the project area adjacent to Sunshine Gas’ Lacerta CSM project.
In a separate statement, Bow announced plans to raise $5 million via the placement of 20 million, 25c shares to institutional and sophisticated investors.
A further $3 million is to be raised via a share purchase plan to existing shareholders.
Bow said the funds would meet its ongoing exploration and appraisal activities in the Surat Basin, where it plans to drill at least three conventional oil exploration wells and several CSM pilot and coring wells in the first quarter of 2008.
At the Don Juan project area, Bow as operator intends to undertake further CSM reserves certification drilling and pilot work, as well as shallow drilling to test the area’s oil potential.
Elsewhere in the region, Bow said the company plans to reprocess and acquire seismic and undertake oil enhancement work.
Once Bow finishes drilling the Carnarvon-1 well, it plans to shut down the drill rig over Christmas and return to the area in mid to late January to drill the Don Juan North-1 shallow offset well.
“The original Don Juan North-1 encountered good oil shows over a 12-metre interval in the Hutton sandstone starting at 331 metres depth, which was not tested properly at the time and bypassed oil pay is interpreted,” the company said.
The Don Juan oil structure has the potential to contain 5 million barrels of recoverable oil, according to Bow.
In the Cooper-Eromanga Basin, Bow said it was being fully carried through the drilling of up to seven oil exploration wells in ATP 752P, where Santos is the operator.
With drilling to start in February, the first two wells, Hudson-1 and Cuisiner-1, are targeting up to 11MMbbl and 4MMbbl of recoverable oil potential respectively.
