Empire Energy has wrapped up drilling of the vertical section of the Carpentaria-2H in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo basin.
The well was drilled to a total depth of 1835m by the Silver City Rig 40 and encountered thick liquids rich gas shales over across four target formations in the Velkerrri Foundation pay zones with live gas bleeding from core samples.
Empire Energy said well logs showed a correlation in thickness and rock characteristics of the four shales targets to the Carpentaria-1 well, which is located 11km away, but was 240m deeper at the second well.
Empire’s managing director Alex Underwood said the company was pleased with the outcome.
“Results reinforce our modelling of strong continuity of the Velkerri’s liquids rich gas target shales with a strong match with the Carpentaria-1 location 11km away, albeit 240m deeper at Carpentaria-2,” Underwood said.
“Increased depth is likely to support increased flow rates while maintaining a cost advantage over deeper drilling.”
The company has now commenced drilling the horizontal section of the well and Underwood said this represented Empire’s first horizontal well targeting the Velkerri B shale.
As the wet season encroaches in the Top End, Carpentaria-2H will be suspended with casing and cementing of the horizontal section.
