Winx exploration well on Slope to be plugged and abandoned
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Australian independents 88 Energy Ltd., Otto Energy and Red Emperor Resources and London-based Pantheon Resources said in individual releases March 13 that the Winx 1 exploration well on Alaska's North Slope in which they jointly participated will be plugged and abandoned. 88 Energy’s subsidiary Accumulate Energy Alaska operated the well.
The well is in what the companies call the Western Blocks, four tracts originally held by Great Bear Petroleum, assets acquired earlier this year by Pantheon. Great Bear is the operator of record because the leases were still in its name when this winter’s work was permitted.
Wireline logging completed 88 Energy said the comprehensive wireline logging program was successfully completed, but provisional petrophysical analysis of the program indicated “low oil saturations in the primary Nanushuk Topset objectives.” The company said testing and fluid sampling indicated that “reservoir quality and fluid mobility at this location is insufficient to warrant production testing, despite encouragement from oil shows” and data acquired through logging while drilling.
There were also zones of interest in the Torok formation, and 88 Energy said those objectives, identified on wireline logs, “similarly exhibited low oil saturations and did not flow hydrocarbons during the Modular Formation Dynamics Test … pressure testing and fluid sampling program.”
Early indications encouraging 88 Energy said early indications were encouraging enough that a comprehensive wireline program was undertaken, “designed to fully evaluate and quantify the reservoir potential and associated shows in the Nanushuk Topsets.”
Provisional results of the wireline program indicated “low oil saturations in the Nanushuk Topsets not conducive to successfully flowing the formation,” 88 Energy said, a conclusion borne out by the Modular Formation Dynamics Test.
“Reservoir properties appear to be compromised by dispersed clay in the matrix at Winx-1,” the company said, noting that clay is often present in successful Nanushuk wells “but in discrete laminations with decent quality, high resistivity, oil saturated sandstones in between.”
The clay binds much of the fluid in place so it cannot flow, 88 Energy said, and also occupies pore space within the formation. “This means that, whilst oil is present in the reservoir, there is less of it and it is not mobile.”
The Torok Channel Sequence had better reservoir performance than the Nanushuk in the Winx 1, but wireline logging showed oil saturation in the Torok zone of interest was also low and not conducive to flow.
Data acquired in the Winx 1 will be further evaluated and integrated with the Nanuq 3-D seismic to evaluate remaining prospectivity on the Western Leases, 88 Energy said. The Winx 1 well will be plugged and abandoned.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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