pre open roc isnt, page-60

olivier re: what have we so far, we have sands Howdy Oli, here’s a quick extract from an article I googled regarding drilling safety in the North Sea. Confirms what you said yesterday about the likelihood of the influx being oil and not gas.

“The volume of a gas kick as it rises in the annulus from 4265m to 3050m remains virtually unchanged. From 3050m to 610m its volume triples. But from 610m to the surface, there is a hundred-fold expansion. Put simply, a gas influx of 10 barrels at 14,000psi becomes 4000 barrels under atmospheric conditions. As reservoir fluid rapidly expands, it forces mud out of the well – unloading – reducing mud in the well, cutting hydrostatic pressure at the formation, allowing additional reservoir fluids to enter, and ultimately causing a blowout.”

Given that our situation is similar to the above, and the fact that a 27m influx of gas would expand to 10,800 barrels at the surface, we probably would have heard a different story in yesterday’s announcement if it was gas that caused the kick……something similar to what we heard when we experienced the original kick at Tevet Deep (which was subsequently confirmed as gas).

Just my thoughts anyway...hope I've interpreted it in the right context….getting a bit restless waiting for the wireline log results – bring back the daily updates I say!