PNG Appraisal Well Success
Australia-listed Oil Search said June 7 on the Kimu 2 appraisal well, which it spudded on April 22 onshore Papua New Guinea's licence PRL 8, has flowed gas.
The objective was to test the potential resource upside in the field and assist in selecting the optimal commercialisation pathway for the resource, it said.
The well reached a total depth of 1,943 metres on May 20 and successfully encountered gas in the target Alene reservoir, which Oil Search believes has similar reservoir properties to its Kimu 1 find with a slightly greater reservoir thickness, and to be in pressure communication with Kimu 1 - which Oil Search discovered in 1999.
A drill stem test on Kimu 2 flowed at a continuous 34.5mn ft3/d over a 72-hour period through a 1” choke. Kimu 2 will be plugged and abandoned as planned, the well data analysed, and used to assess options for the potential commercialisation of the Kimu Field, said Oil Search which has an 83% interest as operator in PRL 8 and the Kimu field. PNG state oil firm Kumul Gas Niugini has the other 17% interest.
Oil Search partners ExxonMobil in the PNG LNG venture which has a nameplate capacity of 6.9mn mt/yr but can operate in excess of 8.5mn mt/yr; the complex shut from February 26 until April 13 this year after an 7.5 magnitude earthquake that killed an estimated 145 people in the region and displaced tens of thousands.