Flow Test, page-2

"interpret low from from the lined section vs high flow from the deeper LA."

The advantage of perforating the lined section is that, in theory at least, the perforations should penetrate deep enough to minimise the adverse effect of skin damage in the near wellbore region. My recommendation would be to run propellant guns such as Pulsefrac, Stimtube or similar as backup following standard perforating in order to maximise the flow potential.

In principle, the deeper over-pressured zones in the LA should have no problem flowing provided the permeability is not too low and there is low or zero skin damage. If the skin damage is high in the new drilled section, there is a risk that open hole flow testing may not lead to high flow rates (not benefiting from perforating holes beyond the damage zone).

An additional cause of formation damage in the LA as they drill deeper is that the mud weight may have to be frequently ramped up to control an ever increasing over-pressure. That could lead to damage of the sands higher up in the open hole section. A rapidly increasing over-pressure as they drill deeper would necessitate running and cementing another liner (4.5"?), and then a decision would need to be made regarding drilling deeper with a smaller bit.