"
how was the pacific [specific] sample taken that was reported in the MAY ann. 02 Nov 2021" (source:
71954556)
By down hole wireline sampling tools, as described in 9 Dec 2022, ASX:MAY, Countdown to appraisal of oil found in Block 9.
Why couldn't they just do the same in Alameda/Marti reservoirs you are inevitably going to ask?
Well.. first of all, it wasn't just Alameda/Marti where the sampling failed, for example: "Amistad unit 1: ... samples but log quality was generally too poor for reliable analysis.
This was later determined to be due to an issue with the drill bit which was allowing fluids to escape unpredictably leading to a wash out of the well bore." source: 9 Dec 2022, ASX:MAY, Countdown to appraisal of oil found in Block 9.
https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02610511-3A609231As for Alameda/Marti, the director goes on to explain why sampling could not be done there:
Andrew Purcell, executive chairman of ASX:MAY: “We have a second well that we have designed to go back and test the two deeper sections, Alameda and Marti. All three of these reservoirs exhibited high pressure and strong flows [shows] of moveable hydrocarbons. Alameda and Marti, and Marti in particular we very high in pressure, and so having the two wells means we can design them differently. And the second well its design is to go back down into those deeper higher pressure sections and armed now with what we know we’re very confident we can manage all of this. The wells have been designed accordingly the rigs hooked up accordingly, and we know probably where to stop, which is equally important, especially in that Marti well. We’re very excited by the flow down there but we got close to a faulted zone probably
that made it very difficult to do any else other than control the well. So these two wells together are our immediate forward appraisal program in Cuba, which we just released the rig a week or two ago from the Zapato well site. We’re doing some much-needed maintenance on it. Our contractors are doing much-needed maintenance on it. That rig has been drilling almost continuously since September of last year. It’s good enough, easily good enough to drill that section again, it’s done it once before it just showed what it’s capable of doing in the very hard drill we encountered at Zapato. And for all the issues that occurred in Alameda and Zapato, the capacity of the rig was not the driving factor for the issues that we faced.
It’s to do with the lithologies, the chemistries of the fluids, inventory not performing correctly down hole.. the actual top drive, the rig, its capabilities are perfectly adequate for what we want to do.” Source: Investor Stream Webinar Series: Melbana Energy (ASX:MAY) Investor Briefing (November 15, 2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrJ5J5hf9c&ab_channel=InvestorStream
Andrew Purcell, executive chairman of ASX:MAY: “What we’re hoping, because we’re deeper a) we have a
lighter crude, (the deeper it is the hotter it is and the bugs that eat the light end off the hydrocarbon chains can’t survive there, typically they like crude). That’s been one of our theories as to why we’ve done what we’ve done in Alameda.
And we had tantalising glimpses of that in the oil over the shakers while we were drilling in Alameda,
but we couldn’t get a sample, because it was mixed with muds. But if it’s lighter, likely the recovery rates will be greater than 5%, so tick one, better than 388 million barrels of prospective resource, then the second thing is the pressure of the reservoirs. You don’t need more pressure, you [don’t] have to be injecting pressures into the reservoirs to encourage flow, it just wants to come at you. And we saw plenty of pressure in Alameda. That’s an encouraging second tick for the performance of the reservoir but we have to test it.” Source: Investor Stream Webinar Series: Melbana Energy (ASX:MAY) Investor Briefing (November 15, 2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrJ5J5hf9c&ab_channel=InvestorStream
Alex (Host): “Just going back to the drilling of the Marti well if I can Andrew,
how will you approach the drilling differently to last when the pressure caused the problems that it did.”
Andrew Purcell, executive chairman of ASX:MAY: “
Different blow-out preventer, different orientation of the well (to
avoid some of the areas we did find challenging with the previous design), it’s a balance with the fact that we did like the pressure in those zones. So, going back in with a
new design, better safety protections at the surface, better familiarity with what lies ahead,
standard casing sizes to reduce the complexity of the well. The first time we didn’t know what we were going to encounter, we built a lot of contingencies in to be able to adapt to what we found, and if we hadn’t built all those contingencies in we never would have got down to TD… but now that you know what’s there, you go in for the environment that you encountered
it’s just a matter of engineering for it. Source: Investor Stream Webinar Series: Melbana Energy (ASX:MAY) Investor Briefing (November 15, 2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrJ5J5hf9c&ab_channel=InvestorStream
Now remember how I said the well control issues prevented sampling, and you said "you're wrong" (source:
71954208), now we have the director saying basically the same thing: "that made it very difficult to do any else other than control the well." Investor Briefing (November 15, 2022). Does that mean you think the ASX:MAY director is wrong as well? lol... In other words, you never want to take your foot off the brake for controlling the pressures, and sometimes I take it as a positive sign that they cannot get samples. I would rather have insanely higher pressure preventing sampling, than low pressures with sampling.
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In other news, during my attempt to write your reply I came accross what looks like a comment from the ASX:MAY director which might tell us what even he thinks about the oil on the shaker images, "we had tantalising glimpses of that [lighter crude] in the oil over the shakers while we were drilling in Alameda". Source: Investor Stream Webinar Series: Melbana Energy (ASX:MAY) Investor Briefing (November 15, 2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrJ5J5hf9c&ab_channel=InvestorStream
I think from now on in our future discussions we should attach his quote to the images he is talking about:
The visual differences in oil is quite noticeable (the ASX:MAY director said we had tantalizing glimpses of lighter crude) if you compare the oil on the shakers from the Amistad reservoir to the Alameda reservoir, the differences are obvious, for example:
source: image from 1 Feb 2022, ASX:MAY, Drilling update at Alameda-1 - Strong oil shows https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02481902-3A586404?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4 "we had tantalizing glimpses of that [lighter crude] in the oil over the shakers while we were drilling in Alameda". Source: Investor Stream Webinar Series: Melbana Energy (ASX:MAY) Investor Briefing (November 15, 2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrJ5J5hf9c&ab_channel=InvestorStream
s
ource: 27 Sep 2021, ASX:MAY, Operations Update - Encouraging oil shows at Alameda-1 https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02426453-3A576721
(20min delay)