Third Black Sea well goes on stream with fourth one days away from following suit

Canada’s oil and gas player Trillion Energy has kicked off production from the third well in its 2022 – 2023 drilling campaign on a natural gas field in the Black Sea off Türkiye, while the fourth well is expected to be brought on stream in the coming days.

After the Uranus rig, hired in May 2022, was repositioned to drill the firm’s third and fourth wells at the SASB shallow-water conventional gas field, Trillion explained that the West Akçakoca-1 and Guluc-2 wells would be spudded a few weeks apart and completed in sequence.

In December 2022, the firm spudded the Guluc-2 well, after completing the West Akçakoca-1 17 ½” diameter section to 1,008 metres depth. After the Guluc-2 well reached 3,910 metres total measured depth (TMD) and true vertical debt (TVD) of 1,623 metres, completion and flow testing were anticipated over the following weekend.

However, completion of the Guluc-2 well was delayed, as massive earthquakes, which hit Türkiye and Syria, caused shipping issues, delaying the delivery of well tools to allow the perforation guns to be properly conveyed and positioned into the well. As a result, the Uranus rig was skidded to the West Akçakoca-1 well to avoid the rig standing idle waiting for tools. 

The Canadian player revealed the preliminary gas indications from the West Akçakoca-1 well earlier this month. As the well identified numerous potential gas zones, the company planned to bring it on stream together with another well by the end of the month.

In an update on Tuesday, 28 March 2023, Trillion Energy announced flow test results for the West Akçakoca-1 well at the SASB natural gas field. The flow test results for the previous two wells – South Akçakoca-2 and Akçakoca-3 – were disclosed last year. The results from the first well were revealed in early November 2022 while the results from the second well became known in late November last year. 

According to the Canadian player, the third well’s two lower D sands with a combined total of 7 metres of natural gas pay were perforated on 24 March 2023. These two zones were flow tested at a rate of 5.9 MMcf/day while the shut-in pressure was 1620 psi. The company points out that the well will now enter long-term production while 48 metres of gas pay remain to be perforated in the future, ensuring “a long-term production horizon” for the well. 

Arthur Halleran, CEO of Trillion, remarked: “We are very pleased that our gas production is expected to double with two additional wells entering production for April 2023 for a total of four new producing wells from our SASB development programme. Since the drilling programme commenced last year, we have successfully drilled and produced from four out of four targets.”

As the Uranus rig has been skidded over to the Guluc-2 well, preparations are currently being made to perforate the gas bearing zones to put the well into production, which is expected in a matter of days. 

“Results to date demonstrate the long reach directional technology being used to revitalise the SASB gas field is working well. Now is just the beginning of our planned development; many more wells are to come,” added Halleran.

After completing wells at the Akçakoca platform, the Uranus rig will move to the East Ayazli tripod at the SASB field. Trillion plans to add three sidetrack wells to the development programme for the SASB gas field, increasing the total number of wells for this Black Sea drilling campaign from 17 to 20.