Drilling on the deepwater Drombeg prospect offshore Ireland has discovered water wet reservoirs, says Providence Resources.
The 53/6-1 well, in about 2233m water depth - the deepest a well has been drilled offshore Ireland - about 220km off south-west Ireland, was drilled using the Stena IceMAX drillship. It reached 5281m final total depth in the north flank of the Lower Cretaceous Drombeg Prospect, but logging and downhole sampling confirmed a porous water-bearing reservoir interval at the well location.
Providence says the possible presence of bitumen was reported in drill cuttings within the Drombeg reservoir interval, "which may indicate that it received an oil charge which was not retained at this location." But, further studies are needed to confirm this interpretation "and its implications for the wider prospectivity within FEL 2/14."
The well is being plugged and abandoned, after which the Stena IceMAX will be demobilized from Irish waters. An earlier well in the same area on the Druid prospect was also found to be water wet.
Providence CEO Tony O’Reilly said: “The 53/6-1 well results at the Drombeg level are disappointing and we will now assess these well data in order to understand what implications they have for prospectivity within the license including in the underlying preCretaceous Diablo Prospect together with other anomalies within FEL 2/14.
"Frontier exploration requires perseverance and we look forward to seeing the outcome of exploration wells planned for acreage proximate to FEL 2/14, which will test plays similar to Diablo and to those which have proved to be successful in the conjugate Flemish Pass Basin, offshore Canada.”
“53/6-1 is situated in the deepest water of any exploration well ever drilled offshore Ireland and is an important operational milestone for Providence, being our first harsh environment ultra-deep water well operation. Furthermore, through our pre-drill commercial transactions with Cairn (farm-in) and Total (option), Providence’s financial exposure to the well was significantly reduced, thereby ensuring that we remain well funded for our forward drilling operations offshore Ireland, with Barryroe being planned as our next well in this program."
Photo: Stena IceMAX Drillship from Stena Drilling
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