The Capella 6 well, situated about 4.2 kilometers to the southwest of the Capella 1 discovery well, was drilled to a total depth of 3,645 feet on March 30, 2009. The vertical well entered both of the Mirador reservoir intervals with good oil and gas shows, encountering 80 feet of potential net hydrocarbon pay within the upper Mirador in a thick continuous sandstone reservoir showing up to 37% porosity and no bottom water.
This deeply exceeds the earlier maximum thickness of 23 feet of net potential hydrocarbon pay encountered in the Capella 2 well, and points out that the main reservoir interval thickens significantly towards the southwest portion of the field, 4.2 kilometers away from the discovery well. Core composed of oil saturated porous sand was recovered from the complete upper sandstone reservoir interval while drilling. The Capella 6 well encountered 175 feet of lower Mirador conglomerate, with good oil and gas shows observed to a depth of 3,605 feet, some 130 feet deeper than recorded in the equalized wells.
A cased hole test of the upper Mirador sandstone yielded stabilized flow of about 100 barrels of oil per day with a water cut of 2% at the end of five days or testing. Due to sand production, the velocity of the progressive cavity pump had to be decreased to about 25% of that used for testing the same interval in the Capella 2 well. The operator intends to clean the sand from the wellbore and conduct an assitional flow test of this interval.
An open hole test of the lower Mirador conglomerate yielded stabilized flow of about 295 barrels of fluid per day with a water cut of about 90%. An assessment of the test results and well data points out that the bulk of the water may be flowing from fractures at the base of the open hole section. The operator plans to cut off this part of the section and carry out another open hole test of the overlying oil bearing interval.
Charle Gamba, president and chief executive officer of Canacol, commented Capella 6 is by far the best well we have drilled in the Capella discovery, encountering the thickest oil pay yet in the upper Mirador sandstone interval, 4 times thicker than that penetrated in the 5 other wells we have drilled, and over four kilometers away from the discovery well. This exciting result has a significant impact on our geological understanding of the field and confirms the large potential of the discovery.
A horizontal well, the first in the field, is scheduled in the southern part of the structure from the Capella 6 surface site within the upper Mirador sandstone reservoir, which was found to be extremely thick at the Capella 6 well location. The purpose of the well is to test the productivity of a horizontal well within this porous and laterally continuous sandstone reservoir.
Extended production testing of the Capella wells, which yielded oil rates in surplus of 700 barrels of oil per day, was suspended in March 2009 due to local marketing constraints. The operator is engaged in removing these constraints and anticipates restarting extended production testing of the Capella wells in May 2009. The operator additionally expects that during commercial development of the Capella field the oil will be delivered to current pipelines following blending or upgrading.
