MUSCAT -- Australian oil firm Oilex Ltd has announced that it has successfully spudded the Sarha-2 well in its Block 56 concession in the south of the Sultanate. The well is the first in the second phase of drilling that comprises a continuous sequence of four wells in Block 56 area. The well will initially be drilled by the Abraj Rig 204 as an exploration and appraisal well to evaluate the same oil bearing zones that were intersected in Sarha-1 discovery well.
On conclusion of the exploration phase of drilling, the well will be drilled horizontally into the oil zone tested at the nearby Sarha-1 well and used for extended production testing. Oil production rates in the range 300-700 barrels per day are anticipated. Drilling operations in the exploration phase are planned to take 17 days to reach total depth at 1,650 metres, the company said in a press statement.
The joint venture participants in the Block 56 concession are Oilex Oman Limited as operator (25 per cent), Videocon Industries Limited (25 per cent), GAIL (India) Limited (25 per cent), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (12.5 per cent) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (12.5 per cent). The Block is located on the eastern flank of the South Oman Salt Basin, an area which has already seen significant exploration success and subsequent production. Several of the fields in this area hold over 500 million barrels of oil in place. Most of these fields were discovered by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) during the last 20 years.
The pipeline network from those producing fields in the main part of the South Oman Salt Basin is only about 30 km to the west of the Sarha wells. Oilex has been pursuing an aggressive exploration programme in Oman since the award of Block 56 to the joint venture in July 2006. Three wells, two of which encountered oil, have been drilled and the acquisition of 1,000 km of 2D seismic and extensive reprocessing of existing 2D and 3D seismic data has been concluded. A 3Dseismic programme covering 400 km2 is planned to commence in November 2008.
The Sarha 2 well is planned to evaluate proven Permo-Carboniferous reservoir intervals in the Gharif and Haima formations which were not fully evaluated at Sarha-1 due to hole problems. These are major productive horizons across Oman. Following the evaluation of these zones, the well will be plugged back and a 500 metre horizontal section will be drilled in the Al Khlata formation and completed for production to evaluate the zone which tested oil at the Sarha-1 exploration well.
This extended production test is planned for a minimum period of 120 days with produced oil trucked and sold to a nearby PDO receiving station. Results from this production test will be used for planning the full field development of the Al Khlata oil zone. Sarha-2 will be followed by two further exploration wells (Prospects D and J) which will evaluate structural features similar to the Sarha discovery and neighbouring fields in PDO's Block 6. An additional exploration well (Prospect A) will follow as the last well in the current sequence and will investigate a much larger, high relief feature in the central Block 56 area. Formal naming of the prospects is to be confirmed by Oman government authorities.
By Staff Reporter
© Oman Daily Observer 2008
