The third well to be drilled from the Cheal A wellsite is due to take 11 days to reach its target depth in the shallow Miocene-aged Mount Messenger sandstones and another three or so days to log, Austral Pacific chief executive Dave Bennett told EnergyReview.Net from Wellington today.
The well will be deviated some 500m north from the existing Cheal discovery site to intersect the Mt Messenger sandstones some 200m below the even shallower Urenui formation in which the Cheal pay sands are situated. The Mt Messenger sands have indications of oil pay.
Production testing of Cheal-1 last year produced at up to 4.5 million cubic feet of gas and about 70 barrels of oil per day, more than twice the flow rates recorded when the well was originally tested.
Austral holds a 33.5% stake in PEP 38738 and is operator of the permit.
