Vintage Energy Ltd (“Vintage”, ASX: VEN) is pleased to advise that the Albany-2 well, located in the Galilee Basin, spudded on Tuesday 30 July at 7.00am AEST. The planned total depth (TD) of the well is 2752 metres with drilling, coring and logging operations expected to take approximately 31 days. The target zone is the Lake Galilee Sandstone, which is estimated to be 280 metres thick and at a depth of 2,430 metres. A key focus of Albany-2 will be the coring of a number of representative sections of the target reservoir sands and intervening shales. This will provide a better understanding of the reservoir and seal properties and optimise future drilling parameters and the stimulation approach to maximise gas flows from the Albany Field.
Albany-2, located approximately seven kilometres from Albany-1, will appraise the scale of the gas potential of the conventional Albany Field over a large 61km2 area. It is targeting the same Lake Galilee Sandstone section of more than 100 metres that was encountered in Albany-1 and Carmichael-1. After Albany-2 has been completed, the rig will move to Albany-1, where a side-track will drill through the 130 metre target reservoir. Albany-1 successfully flowed gas, without stimulation, at 230,000 scfd from the top 10% of the target reservoir.
It is planned that both Albany-2 and Albany-1/ST1 will be stimulated later in 2019, after which production testing will take place. Planning preparations for the stimulation program are well underway, with Condor Energy Services Ltd (“Condor”) selected as the preferred provider. Condor, which has been in operation since 2014, is a specialised service provider that focuses on reservoir stimulation in Australia and New Zealand.
Vintage has 15% of the Galilee Basin Deeps Joint Venture (Comet Ridge Ltd 85%). This equity level will increase to 30% upon the completion of the Stage 2 farm-in funding obligations relating to the completed Koburra 2D seismic program and the drilling of Albany-2 and Albany-1/ST1. Vintage has booked a net 2C resource of 23 PJ relating to the initial 15% interest, with the results from Albany-2 and Albany-1/ST1 assisting with the appraisal of the gross 2C resource of 153 PJ. The stimulation and flow testing of the wells later in the year will move the Galilee Basin Deeps Joint Venture a step closer to converting these resources to reserves.
