The well hasn't cleaned up yet. They spent most of their time drilling deliberately trying to clog the well up so they could drill ahead safely. They used a very high mud weight to do this which means the clogging mud has gone a long way into the near-wellbore area.
When they go to flow test it, the well is all clogged up and it takes time for it to clean up. Note that they say it's still flowing back drilling fluid - we won't know what the well is really capable of until it is flowing pure formation fluid.
I said I thought it would flow to surface - it has, at 400 bbls/day, which is in the ballpark for what I was expecting - I was thinking around 500-1000 would be a good result.
The acid will help speed up the process.
So the news from the reservoir is good - very good in fact. Remember they said they would "attempt to flow the well naturally" and that it might not. Well, it did - it flowed oil to surface despite all that overbalanced drilling.
What's concerning is if they can't get the tubing out. They may have to abandon the well which would be bad news because, as you said, they don't know the improvement from stimulation.
But rest assured the reservoir is looking good. It's the drilling that worries me and has for a long time. Either there are some real numpties involved in drilling this well, or they are having an extremely prolonged streak of very bad luck.
JKA Price at posting:
12.2¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
