HOUSTON – The drillship Noble Sam Croft has started drilling the Keskesi East-1 in block 58 offshore Suriname.
Operator Apache and partner Total plan to test upper Cretaceous targets in the Campanian and Santonian intervals at the location, 14 km (9 mi) southeast of the Sapakara West-1 discovery well.
(Courtesy Apache Corp.)
Earlier, the same vessel had drilled Kwaskwasi-1 elsewhere on the block, finding hydrocarbons in multiple stacked targets in the Campanian and Santonian.
Since the discovery announcement on July 29, the Noble Sam Croft had been compiling reservoir and other technical data within the Santonian.
However, while rotary sidewall cores were retrieved, cementing operations proved necessary to mitigate increased pressure below the base of the Santonian formation.
The resultant conditions meant that representative fluid samples could not be collected, Apache said.
Nevertheless, drilling did deliver hydrocarbon shows in the Santonian reservoirs, and the formation evaluation indicated the presence of oil.
Apache will remain block operator through the completion of the Keskesi well.
