Poland well seeks probes for gas in three shales

Feb. 17, 2011
A group of companies has recorded numerous gas shows while drilling 220 m of Lower Silurian, Ordovician, and Cambrian shales in an exploratory well on the Slawno concession in Poland.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 17--
A group of companies has recorded numerous gas shows while drilling 220 m of Lower Silurian, Ordovician, and Cambrian shales in an exploratory well on the Slawno concession in Poland.

The group plans to set casing to a total depth of 3,580 m at Wytowno-1. The strongest gas shows were in the Ordovician shale, which was 83 m thick. The gas analyzed mainly methane with small cuts of ethane and propane.

The Ordovician shale is thicker than seen in updip wells, which suggests an increasing thickness trend that may continue into deeper parts of the basin, said BNK Petroleum Inc., Camarillo, Calif.

Some 200 sidewall cores were taken to fully evaluate rock parameters. These analyses will provide, among other data: porosity, permeability, total organic carbon, Rock Eval pyrolysis, thermal maturity, gas composition, micropaleontology, and mechanical properties. A fracture stimulation is to be designed in April.

After casing is set, the rig will move to the Lebork location on the Slupsk concession. Lebork-1 is 26 km from the Lane Energy/ConocoPhillips Lebien-LE1 well. Wytowno and Lebork are being drilled by Saponis Investments Sp Z o.o., where BNK is manager. BNK owns 26.6% of Saponis, and the rest of Saponis is owned by Rohol-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft, Sorgenia E&P SpA, and by LNG Energy Ltd. through a subsidiary.

BNK holds 195,000 net acres in Poland through Saponis and another 880,000 adjacent net acres through another European subsidiary.