An exploratory well 5.9 km southwest of the Sea Lion 14/10-2 well has made a second oil discovery in the North Falkland basin in the South Atlantic.
Rockhopper Exploration PLC is sidetracking the Casper discovery well to core the Casper and Sea Lion reservoirs.
The 14/10-9 discovery well penetrated the Casper oil and gas reservoir, the Sea Lion main complex, and the Kermit prospect with 49 m of good-quality reservoir sands that were water wet with shows.
The well penetrated the Casper reservoir 4.8 km west of the 14/10-8 Sea Lion appraisal well and found the gas-oil contact at 2,399 m true vertical depth subsea. No oil-water contact was observed.
Casper has 9.6 m of net oil pay and 8.4 m of net gas pay in 21 m of gross reservoir. Porosity averages 23% and is a maximum 27%, and permeability averages 110 md and is a maximum 232 md. Water saturation averages 17%.
The well penetrated the SL10 and SL20 lobes of the Sea Lion main complex. Reservoir quality is good with porosity up to 27% and permeability up to 1,285 md. Net oil pay is 22 m in SL10 and 14 m in SL20. A free water level with a 10-m transition zone above was observed at 2,501 m at the base of the complex.
Rockhopper said the well result will greatly increase the minimum case area for Sea Lion towards the previously mapped mid-case. The Sea Lion 14/10-5 well flowed at commercial rates earlier this year (OGJ Online, June 27, 2011).
The company received regulatory approvals for the change in operatorship on the PL004b license and next will drill a well 6.3 km southwest of 14/10-9 to target the Beverley prospect and the southernmost extent of the Sea Lion main complex.
