Highlights
- Alameda-3 appraisal well drilling commenced at 6:00 AM, 15 December (Cuba time). Currently drilling ahead at 313mMD.
- Primary objectives are the appraisal of the two deeper and geologically independent Alameda and Marti reservoirs discovered by Melbana in 2022.
- These reservoirs were estimated to contain a combined 179 million barrels of Prospective (recoverable) Resource (Unrisked Gross Best Estimate).
- Secondary objective is to conduct a flow test of the oil in Amistad Unit-3.
Melbana Energy’s Executive Chairman, Andrew Purcell, commented:
'It’s always exciting when the drill bit starts spinning again, particularly when you know what you’re going to encounter. The team is in good spirits, the weather is mild (save for some late afternoon thunderstorms that would even impress a Queenslander) and we’re underway with a fit for purpose appraisal program designed for the known subsurface conditions.
We are looking forward to confirming the oil quality, production rates and reservoir properties of the two deeper reservoirs we encountered there last year. The best-case outcome is one that would give us two vertically stacked and geologically independent productive reservoirs to add to the several productive units that we have already established exist in the Amistad reservoir above.
We are planning to flow test Unit 3 of the shallow Amistad reservoir in late January, following which we’ll quickly be into the Alameda reservoir then the Marti reservoir, both of which gave energetic influx of hydrocarbons into the well bore last time. If drilling goes according to plan (hopefully better, like it did in Alameda-2, given this is also a well designed for the conditions) we will be doing our first flow test in March.
We’re also targeting February for the release of the independent resource certifier’s assessment of our reworked volumes for parts of the Amistad-1 reservoir, which we are looking forward to seeing given the significant increase in net pay interval combined with lighter oil than what was assumed in the previous assessment.'
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Source: Melbana Energy
