02/02/2012
Kea Kicks Off in 2012
Kea announced overnight that the shallow Puka-1 well should spud before the end of the month and take about two weeks to reach the target depth of about 1550m to test for oil in the Miocene-aged Mount Messenger formation within the Puka prospect.
The well will be drilled with a slight lateral deviation to a greater depth and in-situ temperature to that of Kea’s first well in the lease, Wingrove-2, which was drilled during 2010 and encountered some significant hydrocarbon shows but subsequently failed to flow oil at commercial rates.
“Wingrove-2 was rather gas depleted and, with the waxy crude, failed to flow sufficiently. The greater depth and temperature of Puka-1 will, hopefully, get us over the line,” managing director Dave Bennett told EnergyNewsBulletin from Wellington this morning.
As well, Puka-1 should encounter typically thicker individual sands, which should also assist in obtaining commercial flows if oil sands are encountered.
The Puka structure is situated above and adjacent to the formerly prolific but problematic Waihapa oil field, which once gushed more than 10,000 barrels per day from the fractured Oligocene-aged Tikorangi limestones during the late 1980s, making it one of the best producing onshore fields in New Zealand or Australia at that time.
Puka is also about 5km east of New Zealand Energy Corporation’s Copper Moki discovery that last August flowed about 1100 barrels of oil per day from a similar depth during initial production testing.
Bennett said the historic Rotokare-1 well, situated on the southern flank of the Puka structure, also had indications of oil in the Mt Messenger sands.
If the well is considered worthy of flow testing, equipment will be moved from the Wingrove-2 site to the Puka-1 wellsite for testing during the second quarter of this year. This initial testing could be converted to long-term production status in the event of achieving economic oil flows.
Kea, which listed on the London Stock Exchange’s junior market AIM in early 2010, reported a 4.09 million pound (about $A6.05 million) pre-tax loss for the May 2011 financial year, but remains upbeat about becoming a major player in the Taranaki oil and gas exploration and production sector.
One of its strategies for 2012 is to explore the numerous Mt Messenger sandstone plays that are widespread in the geological Taranaki Basin.
Story courtesy of Petroleum News.net