Junk in the hole sounds a lot better than suspected debris as stated yesterday. I still suspect though that odds on there was a drilling break early on in the Tikorangi limestone and they have cored the subsequent interval. The other alternative would have been encountering large mud losses in the Tikorangi and doing some cement squeezes [as Waihapa-1] to stem the losses - so possibilities there for throwing down some junk. However the experience from the Waihapa wells was that coring was the only way to get any reasonable knowledge of the hydrocarbon potential of the fractured limestone interval, whereas drilling alone gave up very minor hydrocarbon indication and could easily miss out on detecting the presence of an oil reservoir.
Hence the need to core, and even then the only obvious sign might be some fluorescence on the limestone. At Waihapa it was acknowledged that fractured limestone reservoirs are very difficult to evaluate, logging has its limitations, and that "the only conclusive method for fully evaluating the potential producibility of fractured reservoirs" was by production testing.
The added difficulty for the JV at Matuku might be trying to determine whether any hydrocarbon indications, if present, would relate to indication of migration path only [and hence no need to test further] or to actual reservoir potential and the need to consider at least some form of drill stem testing.
OXX Price at posting:
21.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
