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Gold/Mining/Energy : KOB.TO - East Lost Hills & GSJB joint venture -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William Nicholson who wrote (4281)	8/25/1999 1:18:00 AM
From: okey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15703

Well may produce gas soon Filed: August 24, 1999 By BOB CHRISTIE Californian staff writer e-mail: bchristie@bakersfield.com LOST HILLS ? A wildcat well being drilled near this west Kern town is expected to begin producing natural gas within weeks after a decision to suspend deeper exploration to avoid the risk of a blowout. The consortium of Canadian and U.S. companies drilling the well decided to stop operations after encountering high-pressure gas in the same very deep formation that caused a fiery 6- month-long blowout in November just 200 yards away. The current well was started less than a month after the blowout as a relief well, then redirected to the targeted deep formation after successfully intercepting the blown well and "killing" it in May. The current well wasn't designed to handle drilling through multiple, high-pressure areas at once, although a second well set to begin drilling this week is fully capable of handling the great pressures at depth. The well, dubbed Bellevue No 1-17R, will become the deepest producing well in the state if it is completed with production casing, tested and put on production. A timetable for that hasn't been announced, but a target of about six weeks to first commercial production is seen by sources as feasible. The consortium of companies participating in the well include eight Canadian and one U.S. publically traded firms plus privately held interests. They decided to suspend drilling after reaching only 180 feet into the gas bearing formation, at 17,428 feet. The drill encountered pressures of 15,200 pounds per square inch and 100 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing rock, 75 of exceptional quality, in the first zone. Well testing with a cased neutron logging device on Monday showed porosity of 15 percent, much higher than the 10 percent expected. The higher the percentage of porosity, the more gas the rock is capable of holding. Drilling was halted 15 feet into a second pay zone, which couldn't be tested. The pressure difference in the second zone caused drillers to lose circulation of drilling fluid last week, and large volumes of gas had to be flared off at the surface. The size of the casing at the well will limit production to a maximum of 50 million cubic feet per day (mmcf), which still would be one of the largest producers in the state. However, only testing and production will prove if the newly discovered field is commercially viable. The blowout well produced an estimated 100 mmcf per day for two weeks, then lesser quantities of gas mixed with water until it was controlled. Copyright¸ 1999, The Bakersfield Californian \| Email the Webmaster Associated Press Copyright Notice \| Privacy Policy Statement