Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Dec. 20 -- Melbourne-based MEO Australia Ltd. reported that its Heron-2 appraisal well in the Timor Sea has encountered gas shows and good reservoir permeability in the Elang-top Plover Formation.
Both sand units give indications they are gas-charged.
Gas in the Plover was encountered 237 m updip of a known gas-bearing interval in the 1972 Heron-1 wildcat drilled by Arco.
MEO says predrill interpretation of 3D seismic suggests the so-called Heron North and Heron South structures are connected with a common observed flat spot event at 4,260 m subsea. This is interpreted to coincide with the structural spill point and possibly represents a gas-water contact.
The company said the combination of a wet gas fingerprint, the presence of carbon dioxide, and the high pore pressure noted in Heron-2 are considered to be strong evidence of a gas-charged reservoir.
The plan now is to set a 7-in. liner to isolate the overpressured Flamingo Formation to reduce mud losses in the completion of drilling through the remainder of the Plover.
An open hole production test is being considered, subject to confirmation of reservoir parameters by continued drilling and logging of the well.
MEO will follow this with Heron-3, which is aimed at testing the commercial viability of hydrocarbons in a 500 m horizontal section through the Darwin Formation, which is the reservoir section of the large overall Epenarra structure.
The two-well program is crucial to the company's hopes of finding gas for its environmentally approved Tassie Shoals LNG and methanol project to be located on artificial islands built in relatively shallow water nearby.
The drilling campaign is being funded 75% by MEO and 25% by Petrovac of the UK in return for Petrovac farming in to receive a 10% stake in the overall permit
