Headline on Upstream Online - excellent exposure...
"Australia-listed junior Noble Helium believes it has discovered a significant resource of helium — a gas worth about US$450 per thousand cubic feet — in Tanzania with its Mbelele-2 probe in the Rukwa rift basin. Noble’s news came just a week or so after London-listed Helium One said that its Tai-3 well in the same basin had confirmed the presence of helium.
According to Noble, Mbelele-2, similar to the earlier Mbelele-1 well, encountered “helium-enriched gas bubbling in the mud system, initially at a measured depth of 140 metres, which the operator said “may” correlate laterally to the formation at Mbelele-1 that contained a “probable” nitrogen-helium gas cap at a depth of 85 metres. At Mbelele-2, Noble said bubbling helium shows were intercepted at multiple intervals throughout the entire drilled section to just above a total depth of 763.5 metres. “These results provide a clear indication of high levels of gas saturation and availability of helium at Mbelele, in line with the company’s growing body of evidence and conviction that the North Rukwa basin hosts a prolific helium system,” said Noble. Initial interpretation of Mbelele-2, it said, shows the well hit about 163 metres of net reservoir in the Middle and Lower Lake beds, significantly greater than the pre-drill estimates of about 20 metres.
Petrophysical evaluation of SLB’s wireline logs, said Noble, demonstrate “good to very good” porosities and permeabilities, although slightly lower than in Mbelele-1. Chief executive Justyn Wood, said: “Our maiden drilling programme has been an incredible success… confirming the potential for a significant helium resource at Mbelele.” He explained that well data points to “a prolific helium system” consisting of a probable 10 to 15-metre column of nitrogen with helium at the crest, plus helium-rich downhole samples and gas bubbles”. Noble believes these results significantly de-risk the company’s 100%- controlled North Rukwa acreage, “with clear evidence we are in a… prolific helium producing system”.
