Chief executive Drew Cadenhead says this result should prove the precursor to a multi-well, multi-formation exploration and development program at the Supplejack prospect.
He said North American expertise involving the use of under-balanced perforation techniques had yielded significant improvements on the formation water encountered during earlier testing by permit operator Austral Pacfic Energy.
After numerous flow and shut-in test periods over the last couple of weeks, downhole gauges were currently monitoring pressure build-ups, which would determine the well’s commerciality.
“The sole-risk testing achieved a major objective, which was to determine if TAG Oil could successfully apply its knowledge to the project while minimising capital exposure,” Cadenhead said.
“The results have not only provided TAG with critical information on the impact and application of new technologies related to certain completion techniques, they have confirmed the importance of controlling damage to these reservoirs during the drilling phase of operations.”
TAG exploration manager Mark Webster told EnergyReview.net this morning that measured flow rates were not yet available as there was no separation equipment onsite. But once downhole data was analysed TAG and Austral would consider the commercial feasibility of linking the sidetrack and the original Supplejack wells.
Cadenhead said these North American operational techniques showed New Zealand operators had not been employing optimal drilling and completion procedures while testing the easily damaged Miocene-aged target formations.
Although no substantial fluid losses were reported during the drilling of this zone, over 100 barrels of invasion fluids were recovered along with the gas, meaning that perhaps this type of formation damage had occurred in similarly drilled zones.
The results at Supplejack South-1A also confirmed the complex nature of the Miocene reservoirs in the Taranaki Basin, according to Cadenhead.
“We are focusing on the Supplejack area as we believe we are in a rich hydrocarbon migration pathway with follow-up prospects in the immediate vicinity ready to be drilled,
“What we are learning will help TAG move forward on higher working interest projects in the future,” he said.
“We’re going to be involved in a number of these types of wells in the next year, and the more we learn in this under-drilled basin, the closer we get to successfully exploiting these prospects.
“We are building up to a multi-well, multi-formation commercial gas project at Supplejack and will apply the knowledge gained at Supplejack South-1A to our continuing explorations.”
Supplejack South-1 was designed to test the hydrocarbon potential of a seismic anomaly at the Mount Messenger level offset to the Supplejack-1 discovery of late last year. Supplejack South had a surface location in PEP38741, but was deviated in adjacent PEP 38765 to test a 3D seismically identified 'sweet spot' roughly 700m from Supplejack-1.
At present the respective partners are: PEP 38741 operator Tap Oil (50%), Austral Pacific Energy (37.67%) and TAG Oil (13.33%); and PEP 38741 operator Austral (30%), Tap (50%) and TAG (20%).
Perth-based Tap Oil is in the process of withdrawing from onshore Taranaki to concentrate on its offshore Taranaki, East Coast and Canterbury permits.
