Empire Energy Group’s ongoing testing at its Carpentaria-2H gas well in the Northern Territory has delivered strong initial flow rates. It has recorded a sustained output of 2.6 million standard cubic feet over the program’s first 91 hours – a potential milestone in the revered Beetaloo sub-basin.
Management says the robust figures were delivered without the use of an artificial lift – a costly process used when a reservoir has insufficient pressure to lift the hydrocarbons to the surface naturally– proving up the operation’s commercial viability.
Empire kicked off hydraulic stimulation, commonly known as “fracking” and flow test work at Carpentaria-2H about a week ago. The program was aimed at testing several fluid blends to determine which material could squeeze the best production rates from the basin’s shale gas resources.
The fluids assessed include HVFR, hybrid and slickwater composites. Each recipe is comprised of a significant degree of water, chemical additives and sand that is used in the fracking mix to keep gas pathways or “fissures” open once the fluid pumped down the well penetrates a zone’s gas-bearing reservoir.
Last week’s test work delivered a milestone for Empire with a sub-basin record of 21 reservoir intervals or “stages” being stimulated as a result of the test work.
The company used the slickwater fracking blend for a significant portion of its stages because of its ability to deliver relatively inexpensive gas recovery rates and its lower chemical additives.
Empire Energy Group’s Managing Director Alex Underwood said:“We don’t yet know which of the 21 stages is giving us the strongest production rates and therefore which fluid system will drive optimal production and cost performance in development scenarios. We will gather and analyse this data in the coming weeks and months. However, our preliminary view is that it is highly likely that some stages are generating more production than others.”
Staged hydraulic fracturing operations such as Empire’s are commonly performed on horizontal, gas-bearing shale wells and enables companies to optimise the placement of a well’s fractures to maximize gas production rates.
The number of stages depends on a given well’s depth, with deeper bores such as the 3000m plus Carpentaria-2H generally taking in more intervals.
The well is in the highly prospective Beetaloo sub-basin about 500km south- east of Darwin. The zone stretches across more than 28,000 square kilometres and is estimated to contain a globally significant resource of 500 trillion cubic feet of gas.
If Empire can continue delivering in the Beetaloo, it could find itself at the forefront of the country’s gas production space.
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By Matt Birney
