The fraccing is designed to enhance the productivity of the Woodford Shale formation, which exhibited good gas shows during drilling. Allowing for about four weeks of fluid flow back following the frac, Sundance anticipates completing OL Hill for production in August.
The Price Well, the second in the drilling program, spudded on June 28 and reached target depth on July 11. The primary target formations, the Caney and Woodford Shales, both recorded good gas shows while drilling, and wireline logs indicate a thickness of 67.36 metres for the Caney and 46.02m for the Woodford.
Production casing is currently being run and cemented. As in OL Hill, the Woodford Shale will be frac stimulated and the well will be brought on line for production as soon as possible.
Drilling costs for the Price Well were about US $200,000 (AU $265,000) less than those for OL. Hill. This substantial saving was directly related to an amended drill bit program, which reduced the drilling time from 24 days to 15 days, said Sundance managing director Jayme McCoy.
“The reduction in drilling time on the Price Well represents a significant saving for our owners, and bodes well for the company’s balance sheet as we proceed with our 2005 drilling program in this prospect.
“The primary target formations again produced the kinds of gas shows we expected, and the logs on this well, in conjunction with those on the OL Hill Well, leave us optimistic that these wells will be producers in line with our base projections when initial production is established over the course of the coming months.
“Sundance continues to negotiate gas sales arrangements, including the installation of infrastructure, to accommodate the production from this and its other scheduled Ashland Prospect wells.”
The third well in its 2005 Ashland Prospect drilling program – the Tucker A 26-4 well – is due to spud tomorrow.
Like its two predecessors in Sundance’s Ashland Prospect, the Tucker Well is planned to be drilled to a total depth of 1800 metres with the primary target formations being the Caney and Woodford Shales.
The focus will again be on gas sands and tight, fractured, gas saturated shales. It is expected that the Tucker Well will take 15 days to reach its target depth.
