Australian player encounters 'strong' oil and gas shows in promising Cuba appraisal campaign - Upstream Online
Australian player encounters ‘strong’ oil and gas shows in promising Cuba campaign | Upstream Online
Melbana Energy has revealed the Alameda-2 well, the first appraisal well being drilled in Block 9 onshore Cuba, is proceeding with good oil shows and elevated gas readings encountered within the reservoir.
The Australian independent is carrying out a two-well campaign on the onshore acreage, which it operates with a 30% stake.
Melbana executive chairman Andrew Purcell said the company is ahead of schedule and encouraged by what it is seeing.
“The forward plan is to run logs, drill ahead to the planned total well depth and then commence flow tests in the primary and secondary units,” he said.
Alameda-2 reached a measured depth of 1597 metres, at which point it was decided to call total depth for the current hole size, the operator said.
Melbana noted that “while drilling through the Unit 1B reservoir a third core was successfully taken”.
“The core will be sent for lab analysis and results will be integrated with the interpretation of wireline logs and resource definition,” it said.
The appraisal well is being targeted for a total measured depth of 1960 metres.
Additional wells
Meanwhile, the company is pursuing permits for three additional pad locations to provide different step-out options for additional wells.
Melbana is being fully funded for its share of the appraisal costs by Angola’s state-owned Sonangol, which is farming in for the majority 70% stake.
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