Strong gas flows on test have confirmed a significant commercial discovery for Australia’s Po Valley Energy Limited at its new Selva gas field in northern Italy.
The company announced the strong gas flows had resulted from successful flow testing of the recently drilled Podere Maiar 1dir exploration well on the Selva gas field within the Podere Gallina Exploration licence in northern Italy (PVE 63% Operator; United Oil & Gas Plc 20%; Prospex Oil & Gas Plc 17%).
That drill program intersected two identified gas reservoirs, C1 and C2, in the Medium-Upper Pliocene sands of the Porto Garibaldi Formation.
The thickest level C2 (net pay 25.5 m) reported a peak flow rate of 148,136 scm/day on a 3/8 inch choke and a pressure differential of 11 bar with no water production. Pressure recovery to formation pressure occurred in two minutes. The higher level C1 (net pay 15.5 m) also reported strong flow test results with a peak flow rate of 129,658 scm/day on a 3/8 inch choke with good pressure recovery (about 12 minutes).
Po Valley says the strong flow rates from two gas bearing levels, high quality 99.1% methane gas content and the well’s 600m proximity to the Italian national gas grid pipeline connection, clearly make the Podere Maiar 1dir well a commercial discovery.
As Operator, Po Valley will now prepare and submit a production concession application to the Italian Ministry, in the first half of 2018. The Ministry has been formally informed of the discovery and officials attended the successful test.
The log and well test results will be analysed during the current March quarter with Po Valley expecting to provide revised contingent resource and reserve estimates in the June quarter of 2018. This work will include reservoir engineering to optimize production from the two gas levels over the field life.
Po Valley Energy Limited Chairman and CEO, Mr Michael Masterman, said: “We are very pleased with the commercial discovery at Selva with our Podere Maiar 1dir well. The strong flow rates achieved with small pressure differentials and fast recovery are above our expectations. We have drilled 6 gas fields in the Po Valley of Italy and this is PVE’s 6th success – a robust exploration and development record backed by an exceptional management team.”
“The Podere Maiar discovery is very positive for both the Selva development and our nearby exploration target 7 km away at Selva East.”
