For those who don't know rigs, anything that comes up via the drill string will be put through the shakers. Shakers are large vibrating filtration system which drilling returns are filtered. If there is a gas pocket, over pressure will be experienced and more denser mud will be pumped downhole to compensate for the pressure increase. If oil is recovered, then it will be noticable in the shakers amongst other places.
Now with a well of this nature, a first of kind well for the venture parties, coring would be performed so the well would likely be drilled to TD and then a side hole for each formation depth would be drilled and coring would be performed. Coring is a slow process and can take weeks.
But just because the well takes a long time to drill does not mean there is a discovery. It sometime can take a long to recover the wellhead and P&A the well. This was the case on ORG most recent Vietnam exploration well.
If the formation has been drilled, then management knows if hydrocarbons are present, but until further analysis is performed there is no way of conclusively drawing a conclusion regarding commercial worth and thus its worth. Its good practice to announce information to the market once the well has been P&A, all cross sections are known and there is enough time to draw preliminary conclusions as to what, if anything, has been discovered. It may just turn out to be like BHP's well in the other prospective tenemant NEN has a stake in.
NEN Price at posting:
25.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
