Helium One analyses Itumbula West next steps - gasworld
Helium One analyses Itumbula West next steps | Helium | gasworld
Helium One Global may extend well tests at Ithumbula West-1, deepen the Tai-3 well, or pursue other scenarios, according to CEO Lorna Blaisse.
Speaking in a presentation with London South East, she said, “We look forward to accelerating our development plan as quickly as we can.”
The company, the only ‘pure play’ primary helium explorer on the AIM, has taken the market by storm after announcing 4.7% helium concentrations at its Tanzania site on February 5 – as well as 2.2% natural hydrogen – and raising £4.7m in a share placing two days later.
Describing the developments as a “transformational opportunity”, Blaisse said, “There is a lot of data we are unravelling, it’s shifted our mindset slightly, to see how we develop. We are working in the geologically unique Rukwa Basin, we are flowing high concentrations of helium to surface, and those concentrations are far higher than any other pure helium producing fields globally. Many US and Canadian fields have hydrocarbons as a byproduct, and have less than 1% concentrations.
“We did things differently at this well, we tested it, and had our own independent verification at site. The samples and flow-testing were analysed at site, so we’re very confident what that 4.7% tells us. We will be sending some samples off to the lab, but we’re not waiting on them to move to our next steps, and that’s an important message to get across. We are learning as we go along but a lot of existing oil and gas technologies and approaches do come into play.”
Another favourable outcome was the high geothermal gradients which weren’t expected to be so positive at shallow depths, Blaisse added. “Moving forward, we would be hoping to harness what’s in the earth to generate electricity to power any plant, that would keep our CAPEX costs down.”
The company identified three zones for well testing, and upon completion of each DST, all three zones successfully yielded downhole gas samples. When performing the Basement DST, high concentrations of helium began to flow to surface following reverse circulation and yielded a compositional mix up to 4.7% helium, 1.5% argon, 2.2% hydrogen, 8% oxygen and 86% nitrogen.
She said it will evaluate the hydrogen findings, working with other operators. “There is a lot going on in the background, and a lot of moving parts at the moment. Our immediate intention is to monetise as quickly as possible.”
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