A group led by Cairn Energy PLC has drilled the SNE-3 appraisal well offshore Senegal confirming the field’s upper reservoir units can flow at commercially viable rates and make a material contribution to oil volumes.
Project partner, Perth-based FAR Ltd., says that two drillstem tests were run in these upper units over the past week.
The company said a gross 15-m zone flowed at rates as high as 5,400 b/d of oil with a stabilized main flow of 4,000 b/d through a 56/64-in. choke.
Another 5.5-m zone was added to the first flow and produced at a combined stabilized rate of 4,500 b/d through the same choke size.
The flows were constrained by the available test equipment, but still exceeded FAR’s expectations.
FAR said the results confirmed an excellent reservoir quality and a correlation between the other two wells on the field (OGJ Online, Dec. 10, 2015).
A 144-m-long core was taken across the entire reservoir interval and SNE-3 well confirmed a gross oil column thickness of 101 m. This compares with a gross column of 103 m at SNE-2 and 96 m at SNE-1.
