Talos completes Zama-1 well, no oil in Zama Deep

OE Staff Jul 31, 2017

Talos Energy's Zama-1 exploration well, which made the "world class" Zama discovery, has failed to find further volumes in a deeper target.

Zama-1 is being drilled in 166m water depth, in Block 7 in the Sureste Basin, about 37mi (60km) off Tabasco, in the Mexican Gulf of Mexico, using the Ensco 8503 semisubmersible. Earlier this month, Talos said the find could contain 1.4-2 billion bbl.

This morning, partner Premier Oil said the well had reached a total depth of 4108m (13,478ft) and logging confirmed the earlier results. Premier said that upon drilling deeper into the Zama Deep target, no additional hydrocarbons were found. This confirmed pre-drill expectations for this formation, Premier added.

Premier estimates gross oil in-place at Zama of more than 1 billion barrels of oil with a gross oil bearing interval over 335m (1100ft) in Zama-1. The field was touted as the first private sector oil discovery in Mexico (international oil firm Eni made the Amoca-2 discovery in the Mexican Gulf of Mexico). Both wells follow the re-opening of Mexico to international companies for oil and gas exploration. The well has been suspended as a potential producer.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, Premier has completed the Anoa development well (WL-5X), with first production expected in early August. The well achieved an equipment-limited flow rate of 28 MMcf/d, significantly higher than the 18 MMcf/d rate achieved with the original well test. Estimated reserves for this well alone are approximately 75-100 Bcf.

On Premier Oil's Catcher development, the final of 12 wells, B12, a Burgman field injection well, due to be completed before first oil has is currently being completed. Ten of the 12 wells have now been tied in, with the final two tie-ins scheduled ahead of first oil, due this year. Once the current well is completed, the Catcher project will have delivered four wells on each of the Catcher, Varadero and Burgman fields ahead of schedule. The rig will then be moved back to Catcher at the end of August for the next batch of four production wells.