SRAK’s Kidan-6 Well Fails To Find Gas At Khuff Target
The South Rub'i al-Khali (SRAK) Shell/Saudi Aramco joint gas exploration venture has failed to make a commercial discovery with their fourth well, Kidan-6, reportedly the most expensive onshore well in oil industry history, MEES learns. SRAK has two large concession areas in southern Saudi Arabia. After three failures in the western section, the group switched over to the eastern area, near the Shaybah oil field and UAE border for Kidan-6. The Kidan-6 primary target was the Khuff reservoir at a depth of around 17,000ft.
The Khuff reservoir lies below the Kidan gas field, which holds an estimated 7 trillion cu ft (tcf) of high-sulfur and commercially unattractive gas. SRAK had hoped that Khuff would yield sweeter gas, rich in the condensates and NGLs that SRAK, and the three other foreign joint ventures searching for gas in Saudi Arabia, need to make their projects economically viable. Initial findings were favorable, with SRAK finding sweet gas in the Arab reservoir at around 9,200ft (MEES, 28 July). A fuller appraisal of the Arab reservoir discovery is currently being made as Kidan-6 is being completed. But without liquids, it is unlikely to prove commercial unless Saudi Arabia revises the 75 cents/mn BTU standard internal gas price currently being used. Any development in SRAK’s eastern concession area could potentially benefit from joint development with either the Kidan sour gas field and/or Shaybah, which holds 30 tcf of associated gas, MEES understands.
Meanwhile, there have been reports of a 180-day extension to the exploration phase of the Lukoil-led Luksar joint venture, but these could not be confirmed by MEES press time.The phase had been due to expire on 30 April, Platts reported. Luksar has made a wet gas discovery and has submitted an appraisal plan.
Copyright MEES 2009.
