Poland Baltic basin well logs thick gas shales

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 28 -- The Lebork S-1 well on the Slupsk concession in the Baltic basin in Poland logged thick shales with gas shows in formations of Lower Silurian, Ordovician, and Cambrian age.

The well was drilled and cased to 3,517 m after recovering 223 m of whole core and 113 sidewall cores, said BNK Petroleum Inc., Camarillo, Calif., which manages the drilling venture for a group of companies. Full log suites were also run.

Core analyses are expected to provide, among other data, porosity, permeability, total organic carbon, RockEval pyrolysis, thermal maturity, gas composition, micropaleontology, and mechanical properties, BNK said.

During drilling, numerous gas shows, mainly methane, were recorded over 285 m of the three formations. The strongest shows were in the Cambrian shale, though gas shows in the other intervals may have been diminished due to whole coring of the other intervals.

Consistent with projections, the two primary shale target intervals were thicker in Lebork S-1 than in the Wytowno-1 well (OGJ Online, Feb. 17, 2011). The Ordovician shale interval is 91 m thick at Lebork and 83 m at Wytowno. The Cambrian shale is 15 m thick at Lebork and 9 m at Wytowno.

BNK said, “This provides further support for the company’s hypothesis of an increasing thickness trend that may continue into deeper portions of the basin.”

The company anticipates receiving all core analysis by the third quarter. Analyses of the Wytowno-1 sidewall cores are still pending. The suite of Schlumberger open-hole logs run at Lebork will be calibrated using the core data to more precisely evaluate the potential pay sections.

The Lebork S-1 log suite calculates the highest gas and best properties in the Cambrian shale interval followed by the Ordovician shale interval. The uncalibrated log suites of both wells currently indicate higher gas calculations in the Ordovician interval in Lebork S-1 than in Wytowno-1, which may change after the logs are calibrated.

During the third quarter it is anticipated the completion will be designed and the first intervals in each well will be fracture stimulated.

The rig will stay at Lebork until end May when it will move to spud the first well on the Starogard concession in mid June.

A BNK subsidiary is drilling the three wells as manager for Saponis Investments Sp z o.o. BNK owns 26.7% of Saponis. Other interest owners are Rohol-Aufsuchungs AG, Vienna, Sorgenia E&P SPA, and LNG Energy Ltd., Vancouver, BC.

BNK holds 195,000 net acres in the Baltic basin of Poland through Saponis and a further 880,000 adjacent net acres through another European subsidiary.