InterOil records drill success

PORT MORESBY, Monday, November 16: INTEROIL Corporation has announced that it has successfully logged 1,224 feet (373 meters) of the reservoir in the Antelope Reef structure. 

The success announcement was registered with the New York and Port Moresby stock exchanges on Friday.

The drilling and logs to date demonstrate very good reservoir quality in the Antelope-2 well which is located 2.3 miles south of the Antelope- 1 well at Upper Purari River in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf Province. 

Preliminary results from the drilling and logging of the Antelope-2 well:

·        Wireline logs and third party evaluation have demonstrated a gas and gas liquids column over the entire logged vertical interval of 1,224 feet (373 meters), from 6,004 feet (1,830 meters) to 7,228 feet (2,203 meters);

·        Confirmation of the reefal structure with dolomite and limestone over the total reservoir section;

·        The cumulative net or productive reservoir exceeds 1,178 feet (359 meters) giving a net to gross ratio of over 96%;

·        Porosity averaging over 14.0% across the entire logged interval, with some sections exceeding 20%;

·        The average porosity and net to gross are better than the equivalent results derived from the Antelope-1 well.

The logged interval defined above is only the upper section of the reservoir. 

The drilling has stopped here, above the zone in which oil was sampled in the Antelope-1 well, to obtain these intermediate logs and to flow test the gas portion of the reservoir before running casing. 

Casing off the upper gas interval will allow us to better evaluate the lower section of the reservoir where we will be testing for a potentially higher condensate-to-gas ratio at the base of the gas column.

 Due to the washouts observed on the logs throughout the wellbore, InterOil has determined that the packer required for a drill stem test is not likely to seal and would not provide definitive results on the condensate ratio. 

The forward program for the well is to perform a production test, run a 7 inch liner and tie back, then drill out to test and core the lower gas interval and potential oil leg section of the reservoir.  The well will be drilled to approximately 8,285 feet (2,525) meters which is 1,056 feet (322 meters) deeper than the depth logged to date.

“These results continue to surpass our expectations as the logs of the Antelope-2 well are as good, or better than what we observed in our Antelope-1 well.  These results combined with the reservoir coming in high, a larger dolomite section deeper in the reservoir and an increase in average porosity are encouraging.” said Mr Phil Mulacek, Chief Executive Officer.