Gulfsands gauges Cretaceous oil discovery in Syria

Dec. 14, 2011
Gulfsands Petroleum PLC has gauged light oil in the discovery of a satellite to Yousefieh field in Syria.

Gulfsands Petroleum PLC has gauged light oil in the discovery of a satellite to Yousefieh field in Syria.

The Al Khairat prospect is an anticlinal structure on a ridge southeast of Yousefieh field in which the potential for a combined structural and stratigraphic trap has been identified. The Al Khairat-1 well has resource potential typical of nearfield satellite closures in the area and could yield a median of 4 million bbl to an upside of 15 million bbl of recoverable oil, Gulfsands said.

Al Khairat-1 is 3.5 km southeast of the Yousefieh East (Yousefieh-6) oil discovery and is outside the Yousefieh field development license area. The Cretaceous Massive formation was found to be oil bearing at 1,975 m measured depth below rotary table or 1,557 m true vertical depth below mean sea level, 2 m deep to prognosis.

Following the complete recovery of two 12-m sections of oil-stained core, the well has been tested in open hole at 1,557-83 m TVD ss. On a 2-in. choke it flowed under nitrogen assisted lift at an average of 1,826 b/d of 22° gravity for 7 hr with a trace of formation water.

Wireline logs indicate that a 29-m net oil column has been encountered with net-to-gross of 100%, average porosity of 21%, and average water saturation of 19%. Based on wireline and test data, no oil-water contact has been identified in the well.