Offshore staff
HOUSTON – Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL) says the A-2 appraisal well on the deepwater Cyprus A (Aphrodite) discovery offshore Cyprus encountered 120 ft (36.6 m) of gas pay in targeted Miocene sand intervals.
The Cyprus A-2 well was drilled to a TD of 18,865 ft (5,750 m) in 5,575 ft (1,700 m) of water more than 4 mi (6.4 km) northeast of the A-1 discovery in block 12
Production tests were conducted over a 39-ft (12-m) section of the upper Miocene reservoir, flowing at an equipment-constrained rate of 56 MMcf/d (1.6 MMcm/d). Analysis suggests future development wells in the reservoir should have capacity to flow up to 250 MMcf/d (7.1 MMcm/d).
Noble has upgraded its estimate of potential in-place gas at Cyrpus A from 3.6 tcf (102 bcm) to 6 tcf (170 bcm), based on drilling data, wireline logs, and reservoir performance. If confirmed, this would be the third largest field discovered to date in the deepwater Levant basin.
Keith Elliott, Noble’s senior vice president, Eastern Mediterranean, said: “While the A-2 location has successfully defined the northern area of the discovery, we anticipate additional appraisal activities are necessary to further refine the ultimate recoverable resources and optimize field development planning.
“In the meantime, we continue to identify and advance multiple development options…we are also encouraged about the further exploration potential in block 12. We have recently completed a 1,100-sq mi [2,849-sq km] 3D seismic acquisition, which will be interpreted over the next several months.”
After completion of the current well operations, Noble plans to move the drilling rigEnsco 5006 to drill the Tamar SW well, a prospect offsetting the main Tamar field offshore Israel. The well is expected to reach its target depth by the end of the year.
10/3/2013
