“Over the weekend, the production casing was perforated over the intervals 4142.8 to 4152.3 metres and 4158.3 metres to 4163.0 metres within the gross 21 metres of wireline log-indicated oil saturation,” the company said.
“It is anticipated it will take the next five days to carry out all the operations necessary to prepare the well for flow-testing of the indicated Gatchell sand oil pay.”
Detailed analysis of the wireline logs had indicated oil saturation in the target Gatchell sands over the 21m interval from 4143m to 4164m, with interpreted net oil pay of up to 13.4m, according to Victoria Petroleum.
The wireline logs for the target Gatchell sands displayed characteristics to those seen for the Gatchell sand zones that produced oil in 1986 in the Mary Bellocchi-1 well 366m to the south-east, the company said.
“Wireline log interpretation also indicates that the top of the Gatchell sand drilled in Eagle North-1 is at the same level as seen in Mary Bellocchi-1, thus providing further support for the interpreted presence of a commercial Eagle Oil Pool in a potential stratigraphic trap,” managing director John Kopcheff said.
“With this positive evidence, consideration was given to directly proceed to the drilling of the horizontal well bore but the ability to obtain valuable reservoir engineering data from a vertical test is considered important.”
The operations would also be very similar to those carried out in 1986 at Mary Bellocchi-1. At that well, oil and gas flowed to the surface at the rate of 223 barrels of oil per day and 0.7 million cubic feet of gas per day.
“The operations will consist of near well bore clean-up to remove the effects of the overbalanced drilling on the Gatchell reservoir sands,” the company said.
“It is also proposed to initiate the potential oil flow to surface with nitrogen assistance. It is anticipated that this will be at the end of this week.”
Participants in the Eagle Oil Pool Development Project and Eagle North-1 are: Empyrean Energy PLC (38.5%), Victoria Petroleum NL (operator and 20%), First Australian Resources NL (15%), Lakes Oil NL (15%), Sun Resources NL (10%) and US private interests (1.5%).
