The Perth-based company said El Viejito-1 was drilled to a total depth of 1932m on January 31 and wireline logs indicated the presence of gas in the target Frio horizon over a 1.2m interval.
VicPet said an underlying 11m Vicksburg interval is also of “possible interest” and will be tested through production casing, which is being run to total depth.
Production testing is due to begin in 14 days.
El Viejito-1 is the first of a six-well, back-to-back, drilling program on shallow gas prospects (less than 2000m depth). The six prospects have 8-10 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gross potential outcome, if gas is present, VicPet said.
Following the running of production casing over the weekend, the rig will move to begin drilling on the second well in the program, Dos Dedos-1.
The shallow prospects to be drilled are analogues of historic prolific Frio and Vicksburg sands production in the project area at less than 2000m depth, VicPet said.
The program is a precursor to the beginning of a drilling program expected to start in the middle of this year on more substantial, individual deep reservoirs that have 30-200Bcf of gas potential.
