McMoRan Exploration Co., New Orleans, has provided a status report on production testing at its Davy Jones-1 well in the Gulf of Mexico and its other gulf shelf and Gulf Coast drilling operations.
Davy Jones-1, South Marsh Island Block 230, was opened for test on Nov. 11 and flowed gas into an unmetered atmospheric tank. The gas was subsequently flared. The company has recovered completion fluids weighing 9 and 19 ppg and is initiating operations to inject a barite solvent into the formation to clean the perforations to achieve a measurable flow test.
On Ship Shoal Block 188, recent log data indicate that the Blackbeard West-2 ultradeep exploratory well has encountered more potential hydrocarbon-bearing sands at 25,000 ft. These sands are in addition to the previously reported potential low-resistivity pay zones, including one that is 80 ft thick and requires further evaluation. The well is at 25,200 ft being deepened towards a proposed 25,500 ft to evaluate deeper Miocene targets.
Meanwhile, wireline logs indicate that McMoRan’s Lineham Creek exploratory well in Cameron Parish, La., has encountered what appears to be hydrocarbon-bearing porous sands above 24,000 ft. McMoRan will deepen the well, now at 25,250 ft, to a proposed 29,000 ft to evaluate Eocene and Paleocene objectives.
The Lomond North ultradeep prospect in the Highlander area in St. Martin Parish, La., is drilling below 10,700 ft. Projected to 30,000 ft, it targets Eocene, Paleocene, and Cretaceous objectives below the salt weld. McMoRan controls rights to 80,000 gross acres in Iberia, St. Martin, Assumption, and Iberville Parishes. Lomond North is 65 miles north of Davy Jones.
