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The Melbourne-based company said Puffin-8 has penetrated the first of three mapped highs encountering the top of the oil-bearing LK1a reservoir at 2022.8m true vertical depth (TVD), about 1m higher than at Puffin-7.
The well has subsequently drilled on a nearly horizontal trajectory, nine degrees from vertical, covering an oil-bearing interval of more than 73m to date, measured along the well.
AED said an initial penetration was made as a “pilot hole”, which was used to better delineate the mapped structure. The present well trajectory will be referred to as Puffin-8 ST1.
Once drilling of the first high is completed, the planned well track is expected to encounter a small mapped low, similar to Puffin-7, “before penetrating the second of three mapped highs with additional mapped oil-bearing formation”, AED said.
The company said the third high targeted is north of the oil-bearing Puffin-1 well.
Subsequent to finalising all drilling, the well will be completed with the optimal design over the entire horizontal section of the Puffin North East-1 structure, it said.
Last month, the company said the southwest area of the field was likely to contain similar volumes of oil to those in the northeast section – somewhere between 38 million and 97 million barrels (MMbbl).
Puffin Southwest is about 10km from the current field development at Puffin Northeast, where AED last month spudded a development well in an area known as NE1.
Also in the northeast section, the company released resource estimates for a separate oil accumulation, known as NE2, which it predicts holds 11-30MMbbl of oil initially in-place, of which 40-70% would be recoverable.
AED plans to initially drill one exploration well on this structure as part of the proposed three-well program planned for the Puffin field later this year, following which a reserve statement for NE2 would be prepared and independently reviewed.
AED estimates the Puffin North East main area (NE1) contains 22MMbbl at the P90 (90%) level of confidence, 40MMbbl at P50 and 67MMbbl at P10.
