Cooper basin well cuts thick unconventional gas pay

Nov. 29, 2012
Senex Energy Ltd., Brisbane, said its Kingston Rule-1 unconventional gas exploratory well in Australia’s southern Cooper basin encountered 53 m of net gas pay in tight sands and 170 m of shale and coal in various formations in the Early Permian section.

Senex Energy Ltd., Brisbane, said its Kingston Rule-1 unconventional gas exploratory well in Australia’s southern Cooper basin encountered 53 m of net gas pay in tight sands and 170 m of shale and coal in various formations in the Early Permian section.

The well went to a total depth of 2,872 m on PEL 115 in South Australia and is being cased and suspended for fracture stimulation and production testing.

The well cut 9 m of pay in the Epsilon formation and 44 m of pay in Patchawarra formation tight gas sands. It also intersected 84 m of shale in the Roseneath formation overlying the Epsilon, 66 m of shale in the Murteree formation underlying Epsilon, and nearly 20 m of gas-charged coal in the Patchawarra formation underlying Murteree.

During drilling and coring, high gas readings were recorded in the shales of the Epsilon formation and the tight gas sands and deep coal seams of the Patchawarra formation. Mud logs also confirmed the presence of liquids-rich hydrocarbons in the Permian section.

Kingston Rule-1, Senex’s fourth operated unconventional gas exploratory well, is 15 km southeast of Senex’s successful Skipton-1 and 6 km northwest of its promising Talaq-1 well, both in PEL 516 in which Senex has 100% interest.

In early 2013, Senex expects to conduct a large-scale hydraulic fracture stimulation program of its unconventional gas wells to test gas quality and deliverability.

The rig that drilled Kingston Rule-1 is to move to Senex’s northern Cooper basin acreage to drill Paning-2, the first of a 12-well program announced in July 2012.

Senex is operator of PEL 115 with 80% interest, and Orca Energy Ltd. has 20%.