A Cupiagua field well has established a gross oil pay of 5,508 ft, the thickest oil column in Colombia.
Triton Energy Corp., Dallas, reported the 5 Cupiagua well confirmed the presence of additional oil bearing Eocene Mirador strata in a second thrust plate below previous pay. The well added about 1,825 ft to the field's oil column, confirmed in 1995 by production tests of 4 Cupiagua.
Triton said 5 Cupiagua, drilled to 18,512 ft in the field's core area, also encountered the same Mirador and Paleocene Barco intervals cut by all previous Cupiagua wells. It was the deepest well drilled by companies developing the Cusiana-Cupiagua oil and gas field complex in the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains.
Cusiana and Cupiagua fields sprawl across the Santiago de las Atalayas, Tauramena, and Rio Chitamena association contract areas, about 150 km northeast of Bogota in Casanare province.
Colombia's state owned Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos owns a 50% interest in the association contracts, Cusiana-Cupiagua operator BP Exploration Co. (Colombia) Ltd. and Total Exploratie en Produktie 19% each, and Triton Colombia Inc. 12%.
Triton said the deeper thrust plate in 5 Cupiagua likely will prompt an increase in estimated field reserves. Earlier estimates placed combined Cusiana-Cupiagua reserves at about 2 billion bbl (OGJ, Nov. 20, 1995, p. 27).
Colombia is a focal point for Triton's non-U.S. exploration and development campaign (OGJ, Mar. 25, p. 28).
Well tests
Tests of 5 Cupiagua revealed oil and gas in Mirador and Barco intervals at 14,448-17,870 ft.
The well on multiple tests flowed as much as 8,640 b/d of 39 gravity oil and 30 MMcfd of gas through chokes as large as 1 in. with 3,102 psi flowing tubing pressure. However, surface equipment limited the flow.
When placed on production, officials expect 5 Cupiagua to flow about 22,000 b/d of oil and 70 MMcfd of gas, limits imposed by the well's 7 in. tubing.
One Cusiana well-11 Buenos Aires-in fourth quarter 1995 was producing 37,000 b/d of oil, believed to be the biggest single well flow in South America.
Partners presently are drilling the seventh, eighth, and ninth wells in Cupiagua field, where production is to begin by mid-1996 through the Cusiana field central processing facility.
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