ConocoPhillips drills sidetrack to Proteus gas-condensate discovery

Sept. 17, 2013
A joint venture of ConocoPhillips and Karoon Gas Australia Ltd. has confirmed the gas-condensate discovery made last month with the Proteus prospect in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia with a strong test in the Proteus-1 sidetrack well.

A joint venture of ConocoPhillips and Karoon Gas Australia Ltd. has confirmed the gas-condensate discovery made last month with the Proteus prospect in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia with a strong test in the Proteus-1 sidetrack well.

Flow rates measured up to 7.3 MMcfd of gas with condensate-gas ratios of 19-22 bbl/MMcf. This is the highest ratio recorded in the group’s Poseidon project area (OGJ Online, May 19, 2009). Carbon dioxide levels were about 12%.

Karoon has estimated that production wells would be capable of flowing at rates exceeding 100 MMcfd.

The reservoir is in the Plover and Montara formations of Jurassic age.

Proteus-1 is in permit WA-398-P, about 17 km east of previous discoveries at Kronos-1 and 10 km southeast of Boreas-1. It is the third well drilled in the Greater Poseidon region. The field is in a tilted fault block 14 km south-southeast of the Poseidon discovery.

ConocoPhillips is using the Transocean Legend semisubmersible rig for the entire drilling campaign, which comprises a minimum of six wells to better define the size and quality of the hydrocarbon accumulations within the company’s permits WA-314-P, WA-315-P, and WA-398-P.

Drilling will continue into 2014.