is it good news, page-55

tinny old chappie,
there is nothing cryptic about it. P and A means plugged and abandoned, plain english. the reservoir is cemented off, and a good number of additional cement plugs are set in the hole on the way up. the purpose is to permanently isolate the gas zones so that the gas is still there when you go back. or from an alternative viewpoint, to make sure it does not annoy the authorities by bubbling up out of the ocean. the sea bed assembly BOP, guide base etc) then can be removed and the rig released. it is purely an operational matter and has nothing to do with the success or otherwise of the well. if it was intended to re-enter the well for whatever reason then the announcement would have said "suspended". when this happens temporary plugs are set and the well head left on the sea floor. however to suspend a well in this way you need to have set casing, which was not done in Blackwood. in fact (without checking the old reports) I think there was probably around 2 kilometers of open hole or maybe more. you cannot suspend an open hole for very long because it will close over/collapse. why not run casing? because it takes casing and rig time both of which costs money, that's why. and most likely that is why a full dst production test was not done either, since to do that again the hole needs to be cased and the test itself can take maybe 7 or so rig days, meaning another couple of million. i must say that in my opinion they took a rather big risk with so much open hole (considering that next door at heron the hole did bridge over) of having the logging tools stick, but they seem to have got away with it. unless i missed an intermediate casing in the reports, but I do not think so.
so, if no casing you will not be able to use the hole again. if you do not intend to use it again, then the legislative requirement is to permanently P and A and leave the sea floor clear of debris. if you were going to use it again, (cased) as a future producer, then the term would be "completed for future production and suspended".
however with this quality reservoir, horizontal wells are required for commercial production rates, hence the vertical discovery well is of no further practical use other than to confirm the gas, take side wall cores, collect fluid samples and pressure measurements and gather the wireline log data. all of which have been announced to have been done.
so why all the angst and wild speculation? the well has confirmed a gas discovery, and has been abandoned as having no further value in any future development of the field. by the way, the declaration of a discovery under the legislation carries no implication or inference that the discovery is commercial. to decide that generally takes quite a bit longer. take Gorgon for example.