Cairn announces results of sixth appraisal well at SNE field, offshore Senegal
EDINBURGH -- Cairn has announced the results of the VR-1 well offshore Senegal. Rig performance continues to be excellent and operations have been safely and successfully completed ahead of schedule and under budget following the drilling and logging operations.
Cairn’s analysis and integration of the dataset collected is continuing with initial results as follows:
VR-1 appraisal target
- The well encountered the targeted lower (500 series) reservoirs within the oil column as anticipated, confirming the reservoir presence, fluid contacts and fluid quality in line with the results from the previous wells
- Preliminary analysis indicates the lower (500 series) reservoir quality is better and slightly thicker than previously encountered
- Oil and water samples were taken and recovered to surface
The appraisal results from VR-1 are very encouraging, as the well is a significant step out, some 5 km west from the line of wells drilled to date, including the SNE-1 discovery. The results will be useful for the planning of the first phase of development – the lower 500 series reservoirs are the better connected, more tabular, highly productive sands, where water-flooding should yield recovery factors of 30% or more. The well result confirms the predictability of the mapped reservoir over a wide area giving confidence to the reservoir engineering models. A resource update will be provided later this year following completion of the appraisal programme, however VR-1 has confirmed the 1C proven resources for the field.
VR-1 exploration target
- The deeper carbonate exploration targets were encountered as expected with indications of hydrocarbons at the base of the well in tight formation that is not currently viewed as commercial
- A significant amount of new stratigraphic and log data has been recorded which will be incorporated into the regional geological model
Simon Thomson, CEO at Cairn Energy PLC, said: “VR-1 is the sixth successful appraisal well on the SNE field and has encountered some of the best quality reservoirs found to date, some 5 km from the original SNE-1 discovery well.
Resource numbers will be updated later this year following completion of appraisal operations. The drilling program is currently ahead of schedule and significantly under budget. We look forward to commencing operations on SNE-6.”
The VR-1 is being plugged and abandoned and the Stena DrillMAX drillship is moving location to commence operations shortly on the SNE-6 appraisal and interference test well, ~2 km to the south of the SNE-1 discovery well.
