Repsol drills dry hole offshore Trinidad and Tobago

April 17, 2014
Spain’s Repsol has drilled a dry hole with its Pinter One offshore Trinidad and Tobago’s east coast. The dry hole represents a major failure for the company, which has been trying to boost its falling crude production from its Teak Samman and Pouis acreage.

Spain’s Repsol has drilled a dry hole with its Pinter One offshore Trinidad and Tobago’s east coast. The dry hole represents a major failure for the company, which has been trying to boost its falling crude production from its Teak Samman and Pouis acreage.

Repsol begun drilling Pinter One on Dec. 26, 2013, and wrapped up the well in February after reaching its total depth of 13,000 ft.

The failure also has major implications for the announced discovery of 32 million bbl of recoverable reserves by Bayfield Energy, which has since been sold to Trinity Exploration & Production Co.

Bayfield in 2012 announced on the London Stock Exchange that it made a discovery with its EG8 well in the Galeota Block and that the discovery extends into Repsol’s acreage.

EG8 was deviated from its surface location towards the southwest in order to target the crestal area of mapped horizons in the prospective EG2/EG5 Central fault block. The well encountered 10 hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone reservoir zones between 1,364 ft and 6,000 ft below mean sea level. Preliminary analysis showed that the vertical thickness of net hydrocarbon-bearing sands. It was drilled to a total depth of 8,133 ft with well sands totals of 421 ft, of which 352 ft is gas and 69 ft is oil.

Trinity Chief Executive Officer Joel Monty Pemberton told OGJ that while his company was aware of the failure, it was not sure to what extent the size of the company’s discovery has been negatively impacted. He said it was logical to expect it meant the size of the discovery will have to be downgraded, but he could not tell without the information from the well.