Comet Ridge said that the drilling of the Albany 1 sandstone appraisal well by Easternwell’s Rig 101 in the Galilee Basin in the Australian state of Queensland has commenced.
Image: Onshore drilling. Photo: courtesy of Stuart Miles/Freedigitalphotos.net.
At 0600 hrs, on 21 May, 2018, the rig was drilling ahead at 711 metres in 12-1/4” surface hole and was approaching surface casing point.
The total depth (TD) of the well is estimated to be approximately 2775 metres with drilling operations expected to take approximately 25 days.
The Albany 1 surface location is 220 metres to the southwest of the Carmichael 1 well which was drilled in 1995 and flowed gas at low rates from three intervals.
The drilling of Albany 1 will be the first Phase in the farm-out work program. Under this program, Vintage Energy Ltd (“Vintage”) is farming into the sandstone section of the block (the “Deeps”) by funding the first $3.35 million of drilling cost for this first well to earn a 15% interest in the Deeps.
Vintage can also fund half of the second phase program which contains further drilling and seismic acquisition in order to acquire a further 15% interest.
The upper sections of the well will be drilled with a standard drilling mud to lubricate the drilling bit and lift rock cuttings out of the well.
The lowest (reservoir) section of the well will be drilled with nitrogen. This “underbalance” will allow the gas reservoir section to flow at its full potential without risk of damage from drilling mud.
Source: Company Press Release.