Key Petroleum observes oil shows at Cyrene-1Monday, February 04,...

Key Petroleum observes oil shows at Cyrene-1
Monday, February 04, 2013 by Bevis Yeo

Key Petroleum (ASX: KEY) has encountered oil shows across a 43 metre interval at its Cyrene-1 exploration well in the onshore Canning Basin, Western Australia.

The shows were observed in the lower Grant and Goldwyer Formations from a depth of 915 metres and are indicative of an active source rock believed to have unconventional oil or gas potential.

Interbedded limestones were observed in cuttings of the Goldwyer Formation.

DCA, which is drilling the well with its Rig 7, has conducted a wiper trip and is completing testing of blow out preventers prior to running in hole with the core barrel to begin coring a 54 metre section of the Goldwyer Formation shale that is believed to exhibit the best total organic content.

The top Goldwyer Formation was intersected at 918 metres, the same depth as encountered at the historic Hedonia-1 well.

The oil shows were associated with increases in background gas and readings on the chromatograph up to C5 (condensate).

Cyrene-1 is being drilled through a 135 metre section within Goldwyer Formation Shales to assess its potential as for unconventional hydrocarbons before drilling through the conventional Willara Formation that is estimated to host 5 million barrels of oil.

The well has a planned total depth of 1,060 metres.