Central Petroleum encounters 20m of continuous oil flows in Surprise-1 well

Central Petroleum (ASX:CTP) has reported 20 metres of continuous oil flows from the Surprise-1 well.

At 0600 this morning CST time, the well, located in the Amadeus Basin, had reached a depth of 2,672 metres RKB in the Pacoota Sandstone.

Managing director John Heugh said today, "Given the reported properties of the core taken last year and the current well site observations, there is good reason to be cautiously optimistic (about Sunrise-1 well).

"But, until the well has been logged and the results evaluated, the outcome must necessarily remain speculative."

Fair to good oil shows accompanied by background gas up to a 75 unit peak with high “heavy” gas components were reported through the base of the Lower Stairway Sandstone which continued from the core previously cut in December 2010.

Including the results of the core cut previously, Central said, "it is apparent that at the base of the Lower Stairway Sandstone, the well has encountered approximately 20 metres of continuous fair to good oil shows.

"With cored zone having been confirmed independently to be capable of flow rates of between c.500-1,000 barrels per day subject to confirmation by electric logging of hydrocarbon saturation."

The lithologies in the additional 11 metres drilled of these oil shows has been described on the wellsite as being fine to coarse grained with fair visual porosity and abundant yellow-gold natural fluorescence and strong yellow solvent cut fluorescence.

This interval and other oil shows above will be logged, cored with rotary sidewall cores, and evaluated with a contingent plan to drilling a horizontal leg or legs over the best zone or zones.

The top of the Horn Valley Siltstone (HVS) was encountered at approximately 2,583 metres and gas peaks of up to 25 units with a similar composition to that of the Lower Stairway Sandstone were recorded.

The top of the Pacoota Sandstone was encountered at a measured depth of approximately 2,631 metres RKB with a gas peak of 30 units at 2,649 metres, again with a similar composition to the gas encountered higher in the well bore.

The gas, with the high proportion of C2, C3, iC4/nC4 and iC5/nC5 supports the existence of an oil dominated hydrocarbon assemblage.

This gas composition has continued consistently since gas associated by oil shows were described in December 2010 from the original well reports.

Central cautioned that the results "are preliminary and based on well site observations and thus are subject to review as more data comes to hand."

7” casing is planned to be run to the depth of 2,750m before contingently drilling ahead in 6” hole.

Central plans to to drill ahead in 6” hole after the 7” casing is run to test deeper possible Direct Hydrocarbon Indicators in the Pacoota and Goyder Formations as well as to test the top of a salt dome at a Total Depth of approximately 3,450 metres.

Following this, it is planned to flow test the well subject to confirmation of the initial visual results by electric logging and fluid/pressure sampling tools coupled with the existing core analyses.

Cash

The company had $13.3 million of cash at the end of the September quarter.

Originally published at: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/22720/central-petroleum-encounters-20m-of-continuous-oil-flows-in-surprise-1-well-22720.html