Cairn Energy has successfully drilled the sixth appraisal well offshore Senegal.
The VR-1 well encountered the targeted lower (500 series) reservoirs within the oil column as anticipated, confirming the reservoir presence, fluid contacts and fluid quality in line with the results from the previous wells. Preliminary analysis indicates the lower (500 series) reservoir quality is better and slightly thicker than previously encountered.
Chief executive Simon Thomson said: “VR-1 is the sixth successful appraisal well on the SNE field and has encountered some of the best quality reservoirs found to date, some 5 kilometres from the original SNE-1 discovery well.
“Resource numbers will be updated later this year following completion of appraisal operations. The drilling programme is currently ahead of schedule and significantly under budget. We look forward to commencing operations on SNE-6.”
An official report added: “The appraisal results from VR-1 are very encouraging, as the well is a significant step out, some 5 km west from the line of wells drilled to date, including the SNE-1 discovery.
“The results will be useful for the planning of the first phase of development – the lower 500 series reservoirs are the better connected, more tabular, highly productive sands, where water-flooding should yield recovery factors of 30% or more. The well result confirms the predictability of the mapped reservoir over a wide area giving confidence to the reservoir engineering models. A resource update will be provided later this year following completion of the appraisal programme, however VR-1 has confirmed the 1C proven resources for the field.”
The VR-1 is being plugged and abandoned and the Stena DrillMAX drill ship is moving location to commence operations shortly on the SNE-6 appraisal and interference test well, approximately 2km to the south of the SNE-1 discovery well.
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