LONDON (Alliance News) - Range Resources Ltd Friday said it has finished drilling the MD-250 well in Trinidad ahead of schedule, encountering a net oil pay of over 100.0 feet.
The company said it managed to drill the well to its target depth of 4,100 feet in only 18 days, well ahead of its drilling schedule which had estimated it would take between 28 to 35 days to drill.
Notably, it was the first well to be drilled by Range using a new 4,000 metre rig from a subsidiary of LandOcean Energy Services Co Ltd, which is one of the company's lenders and also the buyer of Range Resources Drilling Services Ltd back in June last year.
However, Range did not state whether the new rig contributed to the well being completed ahead of schedule.
More importantly, the well encountered hydrocarbon sands and oil shows with an estimated net pay of over 100.0 feet. Range is now carrying out log evaluations to study the well further.
Range said it plans to complete the well using a five-and-a-half inch casing string before it begins selecting individual targets to perforate and test. A production test will then follow.
Range will be pleased that it has struck hydrocarbons as this is only the first of five wells to be drilled by the company during 2016. The remaining scheduled wells include two development wells in Morne Diablo, one development well in Beach Marcelle, and one exploration well in the Guayaguayare block, which all lie in Trinidad.
Range reiterated that it has prioritised three of those five wells, with two of them dependent on the results from the other wells.
The company is also continuing to implement its waterflood programme in the country, which will be the biggest contributor to production growth despite the new wells being drilled.
Waterflooding is injecting water into a well to increase production from reservoirs. The use of water to increase production is typically known as secondary recovery and is implemented once primary recovery, which allows production to flow naturally to the surface without assistance, begins to dwindle.
Range is also set to receive three more drilling rigs from LandOcean's subsidiary soon, which will be used to implement the rest of the drilling programme this year.
Range shares were up 12% to 0.280 pence per share on Friday.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
