Vintage Energy and joint venture partner Comet Ridge Limited (ASX: COI) spudded the Albany-1 sandstone appraisal well at 1430 hrs on Saturday, 19 May 2018 utilising Easternwell’s Rig 101. At 0600 hrs this morning, the rig was drilling ahead at 711 metres in 12-1/4” surface hole and was approaching surface casing point.
The total depth (TD) of the well is expected to be approximately 2775 metres with drilling operations expected to take about 25 days. The Albany-1 surface location is 220 metres to the southwest of the Carmichael-1 gas discovery well which was drilled in 1995 and flowed gas at low rates from three intervals.
The drilling of Albany-1 represents the first Phase in Vintage Energy’s farm-in work program. Under this program, Vintage is farming into the sandstone section of the block (the “Deeps”) by funding the first $3.35 million of the cost of drilling the first well to earn a 15% interest in the Deeps. Vintage can also fund half of the second phase program which contains additional drilling and seismic acquisition in order to acquire a further 15% interest.
The upper sections of the well will be drilled with a standard drilling mud to lubricate the drilling bit and lift rock cuttings out of the well. The lowest (reservoir) section of the well will be drilled with nitrogen. This “underbalance” will allow the gas reservoir section to flow at its full potential without risk of damage from drilling mud.
