Cairn Energy spudded the first appraisal well on the SNE oil field located 100km offshore Senegal; according to joint venture partner Far Ltd.
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Map from Far. |
The SNE-2 well will be drilled in approximately 1100m of water and drilled to a TDVSS (total vertical depth subsea) of approximately 2770m before an evaluation program including logging, coring and flow testing is undertaken.
Three evaluation wells, SNE-2, SNE-3 and BEL-1, will be drilled back to back in a program that is estimated to be completed in mid-2016. Both SNE-2 and SNE-3 appraisal wells will be logged, cored and flow tested.
The aim of the appraisal program is to progress towards proving a minimum economic field size for the SNE discovery, which FAR estimates to be approximately 200 MMbbl. In addition, the BEL-1 well will drill the Bellatrix exploration prospect, which will evaluate the untested Buried Hills play. BEL1 will also appraise the northern portion of the SNE oil field (refer Figures 1, 2).
For operational efficiency, the JV drilled the top hole of SNE-3 prior to the spud of SNE-2 (to a depth of 1750m) by the Ocean Rig Athena.
Drilling of the SNE-2 well is expected to take approximately five weeks after which the logging and flow testing program will commence. On completion of the operations on SNE-2, SNE-3 will be re-entered and drilling and evaluation will be carried out on SNE-3 before commencement of the BEL-1 well.
The JV announced the start of the appraisal program earlier this week.
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