Cooper and partners Sundance Energy and Enterprise Energy, told the ASX that interpretation of all available data – shows while drilling, openhole electric logs and sidewall cores – indicates the Birkhead Formation has enough potential to warrant casing the well for future production testing. But results from the Poolowanna Formation remained ambiguous.
Cooper CEO Michael Scott said the decision to production test at a later date was mainly due to the non-availability of cased hole production testing tools and personnel.
“Testing at a later date will also enable the joint venture to optimise the production test procedure and production test string,” Scott said.
“But it is still uncertain if the zones of interest will produce commercial hydrocarbons. The cased hole production tests will be designed to definitively answer this uncertainty.”
Yesterday, sidewall cores were run after pulling out the drill string from the hole.
Cooper said 10 out of 25 sidewall cores were recovered. Out of the 7 cores recovered from the Birkhead Formation, 3 cores - over the interval 2103.9 - 2108.1m – showed between 50 and 100% fluorescence in sandstone with good solvent cut.
It said these cores corresponded to the zone of interest identified while drilling.
But Cooper said recovery was “very poor” across the Poolowanna Formation, after only 3 out of 13 cores were recovered. One core recovered in the upper Poolowanna zone of interest demonstrated weak fluorescence and solvent cut in sandstone. As expected, another core recovered just below the lower zone of interest in the Poolowanna interval contained no fluorescence, Cooper said.
Workover rig availability will now determine the timing of the production tests.
Following the suspension of Fairbridge-1, the rig will move to the second exploration well site in the current program, Strickland Bay-1, also in PEL 100.
Interests in Fairbridge-1 are now: Cooper Energy (operator) 38.33%, Sundance Energy 41.67% and Enterprise Energy 10%, as well as US companies McElvain 5% and Liberty Petroleum 5%.
