Santos ready to start coring at Dorado appraisal well

Australian energy giant Santos has drilled the Dorado-2 appraisal well located offshore Western Australia to the coring point near the 4,000-meter mark and is now preparing to start coring across the Caley and Baxter members.

The Dorado-2 appraisal well, located in WA-437-P, was spud at the beginning of May 2019, using the Noble Tom Prosser jack-up rig.

Santos is the operator of WA-437-P and Carnarvon Petroleum is its partner with a 20% interest.

Carnarvon said on Tuesday that, since the last report the 12-1/4” hole was drilled, 9-5/8” casing was set and cemented in place, and the 8-1/2” hole was drilled to the coring point of around 3,935 meters (measured depth).

The company added that Santos was preparing to start coring across the Caley and Baxter members.

It is planned to acquire around 200 meters of whole bore core across the Caley and Baxter members before continuing drilling, with logging while drilling tools to a planned total depth of around 4,500 meters.

Once the well has been drilled to the total depth, the plan is to run wireline logging tools across the relevant reservoir sections.

“Due to the nature of coring operations, no information will be available to the joint venture during the coring process,” Carnarvon stated.

Dorado-2 is the first appraisal well of the Dorado oil and gas field which was discovered in the latter half of last year.

Dorado-1 discovered hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in the Caley, Baxter, Crespin, and Milne Members of the Lower Keraudren Formation.

The Dorado-2 well is located approximately 160 kilometers north-northeast of Port Hedland in the Bedout Sub-basin. Drilling is in approximately 95 meters water depth with the Dorado-2 location being around 2.2 kilometers away from the Dorado-1 discovery location.

Following the Dorado-2 well, Santos plans to drill the Roc South-1 exploration well and, after that, the Dorado-3 appraisal well.

Roc South is within close proximity to Dorado, just 13 kilometers away from the Dorado crest. Dorado-3 plans to include drill stem tests will assist with reservoir performance and obtain fluid samples required for the design of the Dorado production facilities.

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