Touchstone Exploration Inc. will accelerate operations to bring two Cascadura wells in the Ortoire exploration block onshore Trinidad and Tobago onto production after the company confirmed liquid rich natural gas during flowback testing of Cascadura Deep-1.
Touchstone perforated the top 199 ft of 449 ft potential pay in sheet four of the overthrust Herrera formation on Apr. 8. Flow tests totaled 58 hours comprising an initial clean-up flow period, an initial shut-in period, a five-step rate test, and a 24-hr extended flow test.
Average flowback during the 24-hr test period was about 4,262 boe/d, including 22.9 MMcfd natural gas and 449 b/d of 59.5-degree API gravity natural gas liquids (NGL). Flowing pressure during the stage averaged 1,856 psi through a 50/64-in. choke. Peak flowback of about 4,567 boe/d was observed, comprising 24.5 MMcfd natural gas and 477 b/d NGL. About 48.8 MMcfd natural gas (8,138 boe) and 1,081 bbl NGL were produced during the testing period. Field analysis indicated liquids rich gas with no hydrogen sulfide and no produced water.
The well is currently shut-in for an extended pressure build-up survey for a minimum of 4 weeks to identify possible formation boundaries. Touchstone will not conduct further testing of the well and intends to produce the well concurrently with Cascadura-1ST1 (OGJ Online, Mar. 16, 2020).
“We will accelerate operations required to bring the two Cascadura wells onto production as the test results allow us to properly size surface facilities for reservoir management. We are also moving forward with the required applications to establish a second Cascadura surface location, designed for up to four development wells,” said Paul Baay, president and chief executive officer, in a statement Apr. 12.
The performance during testing of Cascadura Deep-1 “reinforces the geological concept of multiple stacked, independent hydrocarbon charged horizons in the Herrera turbidite fairway,” said James Shipka, chief operating officer. “We will not be conducting any up-hole testing in the well as we do not want to interrupt this interval at the risk of damaging the reservoir with water-based fluids. The data collected in this flow test indicates that sheet four is separate from sheet three, where production is expected from the Cascadura-1ST1 well. There remains an additional 558 feet of potential pay above the tested zone in sheet three which can be evaluated in future development wells,” he said.
Touchstone is operator in the block (80%). Heritage Petroleum Co. Ltd. holds the remainder.