Santos Confirms Dorado-3 Find

Australian duo Santos and Carnarvon Petroleum have confirmed the presence of a hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir at their Dorado-3 well off the coast of Western Australia, following wireline logging work.

The borehole encountered a mostly oil-bearing, high-quality reservoir in the Caley interval, Carnarvon said in a September 4 statement. Pressure data suggests there is crossflow between the reservoir and equivalent reservoirs identified by the Dorado-1 and Dorado-2 wells, it said,

The result will help the project partners decide on what facilities are needed for the Dorado field’s development.

Wireline logging at Dorado-3 also confirmed a hydrocarbon column in the Baxter formation, which is also in communication with previously encountered reservoirs. Hydrocarbons also appear to have been found in the Crespin interval.

“The key static field uncertainties were largely resolved with the Dorado-1 and Dorado-2 wells,” Carnarvon’s managing director Adrian Cook explained. “The Dorado-3 well is important in providing critical flow test and fluid data to underpin field development planning and a final investment decision to progress to development.

Dorado was discovered in 2018 and has been hailed by Carnarvon as a world-class resource. The next stage at Dorado-3 will be flow tests.