Sydney-based Empire Energy Ltd.’s immediate exploration-appraisal program in its Carpentaria shale gas project in permit EP 187, Beetaloo basin, Northern Territory, includes a 40-stage fracture stimulation program, a recommencement of flow testing, and drilling of a new appraisal well.
The company will begin a fracture stimulation program in its Carpentaria C-3H horizontal well this week. The plan is to stimulate up to 40 stages across about 2,000 m of the 2,632-m horizontal section, spaced a nominal 50 m apart. This is double the size of the previous Carpenteria C2-H program that included 21 stages across a 927-m horizontal section.
Empire said the C-3H fracturing design will benefit from the C-2H program and subsequent flow testing.
In addition, Empire will run a production-logging tool (PLT) in C-2H well while continuing to flow test the well for about 2 days. The well is being choked back to maintain a relatively constant 2-MMcfd flow rate while the PLT is run. The aim is to provide detailed production data for each fracture stimulation cluster within each of the 21 stages. This will be combined with previously collected tracer data to better understand how each cluster and stage contributes to aggregate production. This in turn will enable the company to optimize fracture stimulation design.
The third prong of the program will be drilling the Carpentaria-4V vertical appraisal well to the south of the initial Carpentaria-1V vertical discovery well. The intention is to demonstrate that the Velkerri shale targets in the western part of EP 187 extend into the eastern sector. If successful it could increase assessed contingent resources across the permit.
Results of the overall program will shape the company’s plans for 2023.
