Niger Delta Petroleum encountered 366feet of Net Hydrocarbon Sand in five intervals in a previously untested fault block while drilling Ogbele 7 Sidetrack 2, essentially the 10th probe in the marginal field. “The well has proved more new reserves than what made us develop the field in the first place”, says Layiwola Fatona, the company’s Managing Director. The well is currently being completed in two intervals, one as gas, the other oil.
Ogbele 7 Stk probed the southernmost fault block on the field and encountered hydrocarbon in sands that are water wet elsewhere in the structure. “It is the first well drilled in the untested fault block to the south”, Fatona explains. “It is a significant result by our operational history”. Apart from the 366feet of pay properly logged electrically in five sands, there is a suspected 100feet of pay in two deeper sands that are assumed based on mudlogs.
“We couldn’t log those sands because we lost a fish in the hole”, Fatona explains. “We were supposed to case off (at 95/8”) and drill another 2,000feet”, he recalls. The total depth ended up being 14,878 feet Measured Depth (13,000True Vertical Depth). This means two things: (1)they would have drilled a 7” slim hole with that extra depth, (2), the well would have ended at around 16,800feet MD (~ 15, 200feet TVD), which is a deep level, to go by the depths in the Niger Delta basin.
“We did not encounter overpressure and that is quite significant for this part of the basin”, Fatona says.The two deep, unevaluated sands will now be probed in a new well.
The result of Ogbele 7Stk2 is a befitting 10 year anniversary gift; Ogbele, Nigeria’s first formally designated marginal field, reached first oil in August 2005 and NDPR is looking forward to celebrate the milestone next month.
