OTTO Energy and Byron Energy have finally had some success, with the pair’s second well in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico encountering a promising 45 metres of gross hydrocarbons. The SM-71-1 well will now be completed for production.
The well, in the South Marsh Island Block 71, offshore Louisiana, reached a total depth of 2086m and encountered 6m in the i3 Sand, 9M in the J Sand and 30m in the D5 Sand.
Indications of oil were seen on cuttings from the D5 sand interval and all hydrocarbon bearing zones demonstrated elevated wet gas readings.
Based on preliminary interpretation of these results it appears that a significant proportion of these hydrocarbon bearing sands will be producible.
The primary D5 Sands were within the range of predrill expectations and operator Byron says confirm the RTM technology used to delineate the prospect.
The secondary target J Sand was some 67m up-dip of the highest productive well in the interval.
The D Sand is expected to host some 5.6 million barrels of oil and 4.1 billion cubic feet of gas, while the J Sand was expected to contain 800,000 bbl and 500 million cubic feet of gas.
The I3 Sand was an unexpected bonus, and does not appear to have been produced in offset wells on SM 71.
Porosity logs will be run once the hole is conditioned, as a pressure transition was intersected which required an increase in mud weight to control the well.
The joint venture will now move forward with development planning and has already initiated discussions with an offset operator to cost effectively produce the well.
Otto and Byron each have a 50% working interest (40.625% net revenue interest) in the well.
Otto managing director Matthew Allen said Otto hoped to return to the ranks of oil and gas producers in 2017.
The company will soon make a decision on the third of five possible wells.
Byron CEO Maynard Smith said the RTM technology had been used around previously productive salt domes where the junior has leases, and hoped to make additional discoveries.
The RTM processing algorithm is said to provide a better method of imaging steeply dipping sedimentary beds and complex salt bodies. RTM computes numerical solutions to the full seismic wave equation and allows energy to be propagated from both the source to the receiver and from the receiver to the source.
RTM has only become economical in the last five to eight years due to advances in computing power, although it is still more expensive than conventional processing due to increased CPU time.
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