Saponis Suffers Fracking Setback
Saponis Investments Sp. z o.o. has suffered a setback in its quest for shale gas reources in Poland.
BNK Petroleum Inc., on behalf of Saponis Investments Sp. z o.o, announced that fracture stimulations performed on both the Cambrian and Ordovician intervals in the Lebork S-1 well did not enable an effective test of the two shales, due to a small percentage of the programmed quantities and concentrations of proppant being placed in each shale.
BNK said that although gas was flared from each interval and 43% and 50% of the stimulation fluid was eventually recovered from the Alum (Cambrian) and Ordovician shales respectively, the small amount of proppant placed in each zone was not enough to provide effective conductivity, allow conclusive production tests, nor provide the assessment of meaningful reservoir parameters.
The California based company commented that it appears that both the Ordovician and Alum shales have complex fracture matrices, which were predominantly responsible for the reduced amount of proppant placed. BNK hopes that this complex matrix could prove to be a positive characteristic to this shale play as it would provide a larger contact area, thereby increasing potential recoveries and overall production.
BNK will said that in order to properly test the shales, a comprehensive review of the stimulation attempts have been undertaken with leading industry experts and an optimized fracture stimulation program has been designed for the Lebork S-1 well, across the same intervals, requiring the use of a high pressure stimulation string.
A suitable stimulation string cannot be delivered to the location before the cold winter weather sets in, so the re-stimulation and testing of the well have been rescheduled until spring 2012. Cold weather creates additional challenges in the stimulation process possibly affecting the outcome of the stimulation. Therefore, due to similar cold weather concerns, the Saponis group has decided to reschedule the Wytowno S-1 and Starogard S-1 fracture stimulations to the spring of 2012 as well.
Although an effective test of each zone was not achieved at this time, BNK said that it was encouraged by the flared gas volumes and that it comprised methane, ethane and propane.
BNK owns approximately 26.7 per cent of Saponis with remaining ownership held by Rohol-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft,("RAG") Sorgenia E&P SpA and LNG Energy through its subsidiary.