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Norwest Energy’s Ground-Breaking Arrowsmith-2 Well Comes Good


Never let it be said that we at Oilbarrel are lucky with our timing. We published an article about ASX-listed Norwest Energy’s ground-breaking shale gas well, Arrowsmith-2, last Thursday (September 19) hedging our bets about the likely outcome of drilling that was underway. We said how difficult fracking could be

Literally hours later, early Friday morning our time, we got an e-mail from Peter Munachen CEO of Norwest saying: “Thanks for making contact. Unfortunately the article is redundant as we announced the initial flow rate of 3.5 million standard cubic feet of gas per day(mmscf/d) today on reopening the well.

Norwest has the distinction of drilling the first shale gas well in Western Australia with Arrowsmith-2. We said in our article the astonishing surge in shale gas and oil production in North America means it can be easy to forget just how difficult it is to actually develop a shale play. “Fracking” is a catch-all term that belies the complexity and sophistication of the engineering effort required to release the oil and gas from the tight rocks. As a number of small caps have discovered to their cost, this can take time and money, a lot of money: think Aurelian in Poland, Nighthawk's initial efforts in Colorado and Oilex in India.

Arrowsmith-2, a proof of concept well that the company says has exceeded all its expectations, was first visited by Norwest as a vertical hole in the summer of 2011 to a depth of 3,340 metres to test four target zones, the Kockatea, Carynginia, Irwin River Coal Measures and the High Cliff Sandstone. The intersected shale and tight gas horizons stretched over 1,000 metres, with 450 metres in the Kockatea, 250 metres in the Carynginia, 330 metres in the Irwin River and 22 metres in the tight sandstones of the High Cliff.

In September 2012, it was fracked in five zones, all of them flowing gas to surface, with testing of the shallowest, the Kockatea, taking the company by surprise when it yielded waxy oil. A period of flowback over the summer months has seen the well deliver a total of almost 1.7 million cubic feet per day, not bad for a vertical well that is still cleaning up.

But this was only the beginning of starting to work out the deliverability and scale of this discovery, however. In August 2013 Norwest restarted completion operations on the Arrowsmith-2 well, designed to establish flow rates for the High Cliff Sandstone, the Irwin River Coal Measures and the Carynginia Formation and high grade the intervals to help with development planning.

We said also in our article that the company was having to reduce the target depth (TD) in order to install a completion packer to isolate the High Cliff; the well was to be completed at 2,545 metres. Peter has told that this was incorrect . He wrote: “The TD of the well has not changed. It remains at 3301 metres. What has occurred is that the packer became set at at 2,545 metres. The completion 2.3/8 inch tubing was run to the packer at 2,545 metres then the well was opened in the 5-1/2 inch cased section below the packer to TD. Flow back is from TD then up to 2545 metres from High Cliff Sandstone, the Irwin River Coal Measures and Carynginia with all zones being co-mingled for one composite flow rate/measurement.”

Gas and fluid rates of up to 3,523 million scf/d and 1,100 bopd respectively were measured while flowing through a 29/64 inch choke setting. These rates are the maximum that can be comfortably measured with the equipment package currently on location.

Peter said: “We are excited by this initial gas rate particularly given the volume of stimulation fluids that remain to be flowed back. We fully expect that Arrowsmith-2 will provide the relevant information in coming months to assist in assessing the potential development of the Arrowsmith unconventional field.” Norwest has a 27.945 per cent interest alongside Bharat Petroleum with 27.945 per cent and AWE with 44.252 per cent.

http://oilbarrel.com/news/norwest-energys-ground-breaking-arrowsmith-2-well-comes-good