Both. Mobilisation is the most expensive part of drilling per hour of operation, and a well this deep and this remote will cost a few million before it even spuds. The tophole is expensive because the casing is larger and heavier. And as you get deeper you need more casing strings (and every length needs to be trucked to the middle of Australia), longer trip times and as you say, that's when the contractors like Schlumberger are onsite. Plus as you progress you are more likely to get a drilling problem which can be a real black swan to the well costs. Stuck rods, loss zones, overpressured zones, or the one CTP knows a bit about - the rig falling over.
So in terms of raw dollars per day I expect mobilisation will be the biggest contributor, but mobilisation is only a few days to a week - there's 5 weeks of drilling and every day of it is going to cost more in the current environment.
CTP Price at posting:
10.8¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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