Win Report No 7 last week had them at 2891m running and cementing the 14 inch casing, testing (BOP) etc. Guess that they are, or are about to drill ahead, past the over-pressured shallow gas at about 3000m that caused the problems with Webley in 1998 and it's abandonment, the well not getting past the cretaceous. Lets hope that they get past this area safely. Remember that this well has been designed as a 'deviated exploration well' the 'deviation' part of it being, as I understand it, to avoid this over-pressured shallow gas. Shows you that these things are not simple. Easy to think that this is a straight forward drill in shallow water, 'what can go wrong', 'can go wrong', 'go wrong', go wrong', 'go wrong'. (Sorry couldn't help myself, over-pressure shallow gas is getting to me. I digress.) In actual fact it is a bit more complicated. As I say lets hope that the next section doesn't cause any problems and they manage to miss this gas, as planned. As an aside it brings back painful memories of the Artemis drill. A number will remember that they put out a report of intersecting 'over pressure gas' just prior to the target zone. Had everybody standing up cheering, lots of 'likes' and 'back slapping' only to be followed by a 'Plugged and Abandoned' announcement a few days latter. What a crock that was. Again I digress. Anyway from here it is only 7-800m to the Triassic target zone at 3720m. Should not take too long.
Palta
Nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong. You would not want to be signing the cheques. Does anyone have any idea as to where we are at with this one? Are we expecting Shell to tell us anything? Maybe the first we will hear is that the Noble Clyde Boudreaux is being moved. It is behind schedule for the drilling of Prelude I think. I don't have any idea but the longer the rig is on site the better, not that it is telling us anything really. Not much on the WHN and STX threads either.
On the Board, OXX is plodding as beasts do, unloved except for a few of us deluded diehards, playing games such as, imaginary sweepstakes, in desperate efforts to 'retain the faith', 'there is no elephant in this room'. Razor thin volume as ever. I do suspect though that although the OXX is not day traders plaything a few BESBS players will be eyeing the door as it may not be too long before we are put out of our misery. A new week. Good luck everyone.
OXX Price at posting:
22.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held