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Bittersweet offshore results: exclusive

Blair Price
Monday, 13 May 2013


THERE is a mix of good and bad news from Oil Search and French supermajor Total SA’s Flinders-1 offshore well which is underway in Papua New Guinea, with encouraging sandstones found but only non-commercial hydrocarbons encountered from the primary targets.

Despite some industry buzz that the first of the joint venture’s two committed wells for their Gulf of Papua licences was a dry hole, an Oil Search spokesperson has revealed this is not entirely the case.

“While we haven’t seen any significant volumes of hydrocarbons, we have encountered some non-commercial hydrocarbons,” she said.

“And no, the well hasn’t completed drilling yet.

“After completing logging the primary targets, which is currently underway, we plan to drill ahead to investigate an interval of interest slightly deeper than the current well depth.”

Oil Search found other encouraging signs.

“The good news from Flinders is that we have proved the presence of a thick package of sandstones and the presence of hydrocarbons, although not in commercial concentrations,” the spokesperson said.

“Seeing this so far out in the basin has de-risked two of the main uncertainties in the offshore Gulf play.

“Although it’s too early to be able to comment on why this interval at Flinders hasn’t retained significant hydrocarbons, the prospectivity of this and other intervals in the basin remains.

“The data we are gathering will allow our geoscience in this area to be calibrated for the first time with hard data and will allow a thorough analysis of not only this but other prospective locations.”

The Stena Clyde semi-submersible rig will next drill Hagana-1 once the Flinders well is completed.

A JV decision on drilling the third offshore prospect in this region, Kidukidu, would be taken in the next few weeks, the spokesperson said.

Oil Search and Total are keeping their offshore gas commercialisation options open, meaning that discovered gas could support a stand-alone LNG project, a floating LNG development or be used to help expand the PNG LNG plant near Port Moresby.

http://www.pngindustrynews.net/storyview.asp?storyid=798463240§ionsource=s0