excellent share , page-6

I don't really agree Cooper messed up the drilling. At least, not for the reasons you mentioned.

Obviously there have been problems because the well is running far behind schedule but some of these were mechanical and some were probably just standard drilling problems that happen all the time. I've never known a well to come in under time, timelines ALWAYS blow out.

But it doesn't really matter that they intersected the resevoir early. There is no clean boundary between the Abiod and the overlying formation (it's a transition zone) so it would be very difficult to pick on seismic anyway. The oil-based mud does make it harder to see oil shows, but they only just tagged the top Abiod with oil-based mud. Then they changed to water-based and drilled the rest of the 190m oil leg with water-based mud, so why would it matter if the top few metres were drilled with oil-based mud?

They also did run LWD. It clearly states in the last progress report that they ran LWD. They even ran a fracture image log by LWD!

But LWD does not replace wireline logging because it is not as accurate. It is just an aid to drilling. After reaching TD they will still go back and run wireline logs because those are the logs you need to use to make your calculations of saturation etc.

As for their 'director of geology' I would hope he is not on the rig. I would hope he is in the office! It's not his job to be on the rig. That's the job for the (hopefully very experienced) wellsite geo. The big bosses should be back in the office IMO. With modern telemetry they get all the LWD, gas detector logs, ROP data etc in real time.

So I don't think Cooper have done a bad job. They certainly haven't bungled it. It's just a tricky well to drill. And I do agree about Dragon - I think Dragon probably have more than their fair say in what happens on that rig and have right from the start. They have 55% and they have the experience of offshore carbonate reservoirs, their company representatives on the rig would be stamping their authority and Cooper would be listening to them.