Canning Basin focussed mature hydrocarbon producer, Buru Energy, has commenced wireline logging operations at its latest oil exploration well known as Miani 1 in the Canning Basin.
The new well is to the northwest of the company’s Blina oilfield, about 70km east of Derby, in the West Kimberley region of WA.
The hole was completed to a total depth of 2,689 metres earlier this month and the initial interpretation of the well logs to about 1,650 metres depth, indicate that there is potential for additional prospectivity in the lower part of the Nullara carbonate rock sequence not yet penetrated by the well.
Buru will now complete a “wiper trip” to condition the hole and extend logging to the end of the current drill trace and it then plans to deepen the well to about 3,000m, to ensure it fully evaluates the prospective Nullara section at depth.
After reaching the desired drill depth, the full section will be re-evaluated by logging and these operations are expected to be completed by early next week the company said.
About 130km to the southwest, Buru is completing coil tubing operations at its previous Ungani 7H and Ungani 6H wells in the Ungani oilfield.
This work has now commenced on Ungani 7H after successful rigging up and pressure testing of all installed equipment.
Crude oil from the existing Ungani production facility will be introduced into the drilling system for the drilling of the horizontal reservoir section of the hole, once initial operations are completed for Ungani 7H.
The coil tubing unit will then be moved to the Ungani 6H well to run the expandable liner, which is anticipated to take between seven and 10 days.
The company said it is expected that all of these operations will be completed by the end of November and that the Ungani 6H and 7H wells will then be brought into production during December, if everything goes according to plan.
In its latest report, Buru said that the Ungani oilfield had produced about 86,000 barrels of oil in the September quarter, averaging 940 barrels of oil per day, including for the period that the well was offline.
Crude oil sales for the quarter totalled about 75,000 barrels at an FOB price of AUD$81 per barrel, raking in revenues of just over AUD$3.1m from the company’s 50% share in the oilfield.
Buru further upgraded its Ungani production facility recently in preparation for the expected increase in oil production from the two new wells at Ungani 6H and 7H later this year.
Elsewhere, the Adoxi 1 exploration well, located a short distance northeast of Ungani, was drilled and completed with a potential 10m oil zone identified, the company said.
Buru also indicated that its Blina 4 well in the Blina oilfield, southeast of the Miani 1 well, was “recompleted” in preparation for well testing there.
The company is seeking to intersect oil in stratigraphic traps within reef-formed carbonate rocks in the wider Canning Basin, which is a series of sedimentary geological units in the southwest Kimberley region some 2,300km north of Perth.
The Canning Basin is the largest sedimentary basin in WA, covering an area of some 530,000 square kilometres. It has similarities with some of the highly productive basins of the same geological age globally and is one of the few remaining areas in onshore Australia that are relatively underexplored for hydrocarbons.
Buru holds the dominant position in the Canning Basin and in addition to the significant conventional Ungani oilfield and the tight wet gas resources of the Laurel Formation, it also has an extensive and highly prospective exploration portfolio covering oil and gas prospects that are well-defined by both 2D and 3D seismic.
The latter includes the company’s fully-owned Blina oilfield holdings and ground to the northwest, where the recent Miani 1 well was drilled.
The company is also a step closer to unlocking its tight gas portfolio in the basin after the Western Australian state Government recently lifted the moratorium on hydraulic stimulation over existing petroleum titles.
The moratorium had been in place since September 2017 to allow for an independent scientific inquiry, which confirmed last year that hydraulic stimulation presented low risk if regulated appropriately.
Buru management said it believed that the current regulations provide a framework whereby hydraulic stimulation can be undertaken safely and without any significant environmental impacts.
Whilst the company has agreed to exclude the Broome township and water supply areas in its existing titles as part of the Government’s determination of the Dampier Peninsula as a “frac free zone”, it is now able to proceed with hydraulic stimulation on its remaining acreage.
Buru previously drilled four wells at its onshore Yulleroo gas field, 80km east of Broome.
It has also carried out a trial hydraulic stimulation of the vertical Yulleroo-2 well, which flowed “sweet” gas with no hydrogen sulphides, negligible carbon dioxide shows and more than 10% associated liquified petroleum gas.
The company estimates that the Yulleroo gas field contains 2C contingent resources of about 714 petajoules of gas and 24.9 million barrels of associated liquids within the Laurel tight gas formation.
The Laurel Formation is interpreted to contain a major basin-centred gas accumulation in the Canning Basin.
Whilst Buru’s current plans are focussed on unearthing the region’s conventional oil potential, it has also flagged that it may drill a well to test the conventional gas resources at the Yulleroo gas field in the future.
With pending production from two new wells within the Ungani oilfield, the company is now well-positioned to continue its wide-ranging hunt for economic accumulations of hydrocarbons within its significant ground holdings in the Canning Basin.
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By Matt Birney
