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Exoma confirms Katherine find

Australia’s Exoma Energy has confirmed its Katherine-1 well in the Galilee basin contains a significant resource, with a mean estimate of 79 million barrels made on Monday.

Andrew Hobbs 05 December 2011 03:56 GMT

The well was spudded in August, the fifth of a 12-well drilling campaign on ATP 999P in the Australian state of Queensland, with the company confirming hydrocarbons in September.

Katherine-1 hit about 10 metres of potential oil pay when it was drilled to 1207 metres to test Exoma’s modelled extension of the Toobrac-1 oil show. This included one of about four metres in the Adori sandstone and one of about six metres in the lower Hutton sandstone.

While Exoma could not recover a representative sample from Katherine-1 due to adverse well conditions, the company had observed and tested oil shows in the cuttings from both sandstones, it said.

After interpretation of the Katherine-1 logs, the indicated oil column and analysis of the petrophysical logs from the two wells, Exoma said it had recovered a proved and probable resource of 11 million barrels from the Hutton sandstone.

This confirmed its model of the sandstone as an oil-filled stratigraphic trap against a granite basement high, Exoma said, with log analysis showing the Hutton oil column was in a permeable reservoir zone with free oil able to be flowed.

While interpretations of the Adori sandstone were less conclusive, a proved and probable resource of 49 million barrels of oil was estimated, with the potential to extend over the entire Katherine West structure

Exoma said it planned to move some of its resource estimates into the reserve category when it drilled its next well. Katherine-2, in early 2012.

Based on an independent analysis of log results from the Katherine-1 well as well as Ampolex’s 1985 Toobrac-1 well and Exoma’s reinterpretation of seismic survey data, the company said the Katherine West structure could contain up to 177 million barrels of oil, while the adjacent but undrilled Katherine East prospect could hold up to 458 million barrels of oil in place.

A well on Katherine East would also be drilled in 2012, with the prospect having a proved and probable resource of 160 million barrels, Exoma said – based on an assumption that the same reservoir conditions observed at Katherine West would continue.

Exoma has a 50% stake in ATP 999P with China National Offshore Oil Corporation earning a 50% participating interest through a farm-in. That deal will see it fund the initial A$50 million (US$51.2 million) of joint venture expenditures on ATP’s 991, 996, 999, 1005 and 1008.

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article292491.ece