By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 29 -- A stratigraphic test has confirmed the existence of a carbonate platform and found oil shows in the Northern Apennine Thrust in south-central Italy, said Pentex Italia Ltd. and Ascent Resources PLC.
Log and core data indicated that the Anagni-1 well drilled into an oil reservoir in the Latina Valley 80 km east-southeast of Rome and 240 km northwest of oil and gas fields in the Basilicata region.
The well, on Pentex's Frosinone Exploration Permit, was projected to 800 m to test Miocene and Cretaceous sands. It encountered the carbonate platform at 865 m, then found oil in cuttings 40 m deeper into the limestone. Oil quality was not immediately available.
Complete lost circulation at 921 m confirmed the presence of reservoir quality rock, and a 5-m core recovered from below the lost circulation zone had oil in open fractures. Drilling continued to 971 m, still in carbonates, and electric logs confirmed the presence of fractures throughout the section, Ascent Resources said.
The well is temporarily completed until a larger rig can be found to deepen it to 2,000 m to investigate the full carbonate sequence and test the oil reservoir.
Ascent Resources said the well found the top of the carbonates shallower than expected and much shallower than in the nearby Gavignano-1 well.
The smaller rig will move to Spain to drill the Hontomin-4 appraisal well in the Huermeces Exploration Permit to about 1,570 m to test Lower Jurassic and Triassic. The permit is southeast of Spain's only onshore oilfield, Ayoluengo in the Sedano basin, which averages about 100 b/d of oil.
