Canacol has Middle Mag oil discovery in Colombia

Aug. 27, 2013
Canacol Energy Ltd., Calgary, said it has made an oil discovery in a shallow conventional Tertiary Lisama sandstone reservoir in Colombia's Middle Magdalena Valley but technical problems resulted in the well not being deepened to the Cretaceous La Luna and Simiti unconventional formations.

Canacol Energy Ltd., Calgary, said it has made an oil discovery in a shallow conventional Tertiary Lisama sandstone reservoir in Colombia's Middle Magdalena Valley but technical problems resulted in the well not being deepened to the Cretaceous La Luna and Simiti unconventional formations.

Planned total depth of the Oso Pardo-1 well in the Santa Isabel exploration and production contract area was 10,199 ft measured depth.

The well penetrated the Lisama sandstones as anticipated at 3,390 ft MD with good oil and gas shows while drilling, and drilled through the Umir formation with similarly good oil and gas shows in two separate oil filled sandstone intervals at 3,665 and 3,800 ft MD, respectively.

Petrophysical evaluation of the open hole logs acquired indicate 88 ft of oil pay in the Tertiary sandstones: 60 ft of oil pay in the Lisama with 25% average porosity and 28 ft of oil pay in two separate Umir sandstones with 16% average porosity. The technical problems were encountered while drilling the Tertiary section.

Under a farmout from ConocoPhillips, Canacol exercised its option to continue shallow operations on a 100% cost basis with the objective of conducting a series of cased-hole production tests of the Umir and Lisama sandstones.

Upper Umir sandstone perforations at 3,666-85 ft stabilized at 205 b/d of 23.3° gravity oil with a 9.67% water cut and 107.54 Mcfd of gas. Water cut decreased steadily over 13 days on the jet pump.

Management believes the water to be completion fluid as more than 2,000 bbl of drilling fluid were lost into the Umir and Lisama sandstones and analysis of the pressure build-up performed at the end of the test indicated heavy formation damage related to the drilling process. This damage will be remediated with a small acid stimulation prior to the zone being brought on long-term production test.

Canacol perforated Lisama at 3,399-3,427 ft MD and tested a small amount of heavy oil of less than 10° gravity and filtrate on a jet pump. The entire reservoir interval is believed to contain heavy oil, and Canacol is considering various techniques that could be used to establish commercial production from this heavy oil discovery in the future.

The company is designing a stimulation for the Upper Umir sandstone in order to remove the formation damage and improve productivity and anticipates placing the well on long-term production test once the appropriate permit has been received, within a period of one month. As per the farmout agreement, Canacol has the right to receive 100% of the crude oil produced from the Umir and Lisama sandstones, subject to ANH approval.

The discovery is the first on the contract area, and Canacol looks forward to drilling the next well.