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Grey Panther
Your assessment makes sense. The phenomenon you describe is called ‘condensate banking’. It occurs when liquids condense around the low pressure zone surrounding the well bore if the reservoir is homogeneous. If the reservoir relies on fractures for effective permeability and too much drawdown is used the condensation occurs along the fracture faces.
The solution to all this is to maintain high wellhead pressure to prevent condensation. At the surface downstream from the wellhead the fluid flow often starts ‘slugging’ with intermittent spurts of gas and liquid needing a ‘slug catcher’ to avoid the testing equipment vibrating itself apart. Any remaining liquids in the gas display their presence as a bright yellow flame in the flare with some soot, whereas pure methane with right amount of air burns with a blue flame.
Geologically speaking, since the WN area has been uplifted by several thousand feet since the gas was first trapped, it could be the liquid leg interpreted in the well condensed naturally as pressure declined over millions of years leaving a gas cap with a deeper ‘oil’ accumulation. . If this is the case, the liquid is known as retrograde condensate.
Look out - Lenigas returns!
FD - two dry holes have already been drilled on the Pensacola block using jack up rigs without encountering foundation problems or shallow gas hazards. And lots of other wells to east and south without problems. Usually, the survey company looks at the footprint of previous spud cans on the sea bed in conjunction with existing previous site survey reports.
Now Cairn is running the technical show and Shell is in command of operations on some licences, I wonder what work remains to be done in Deltic's office?
Feeling lucky
Most of the China’s import terminals are owned by the dominant state-run oil and gas companies like China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and PetroChina. The latest new facility, with a capacity of 800,000 tonnes a year, will take China’s total number of operating LNG terminals to 22. The capacity of most LNG tankers is about 150,000 cubic metres, so storage in LNG ships is really not an option.
CNOOC, parent of CNOOC Ltd, started China’s first terminal in 2006, and accounts for nearly 60 percent of its total receiving capacity. A handful of small private firms have in recent years stepped into the sector, including city gas developer ENN Energy, Jovo Energy and Guanghui Energy. The largest independent terminal, a 3 million tonne-per-year facility in east China, was built by ENN and started up in October.
According to China Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineering Institute and industry sources. A total of 9 million cubic meters of storage tanks are in operation at these terminals, with another 5 million cubic metres under construction.
In comparison UK has storage capacity of just 1 million cubic metres at 3 terminals - Hook, Isle of Grain and Milford Haven.
In the LNG market Europe is effectively the swing or balancing market for global gas. The amount of LNG that came to Europe is what wass left over after everyone else - including China - has taken what they need and less about what Europe needed in recent years.
All the other countries and regions in the LNG market are largely demand-driven. They often have few alternatives to LNG in the form of domestic production or pipeline imports, and limited gas storage facilities – all of this is in sharp contrast to Europe. China is the only major country with production, pipe imports and diverse LNG imports, but it lacks a liquid trading market like the NBP hub and demand which responds to price. Even over 10 million cubic meters already and another 5 under construction, China still has limited gas storage capacity. This means price LNG into Europe reach a new, long term plateau price. Effectively, we’ve enjoyed a period of exceptionally low gas prices, but the recent price rise is here to stay.
Persimmon
6 months ago they were touting hydrogen storage -
ADX is in the running for STRAW CLUTCHER OF THE YEAR award on ASX
Good points, Penguins
By spudding Resan 3 UKOG investors have simply paid for the licence to be extended by Tuirkish authorities. And looks like AME have few political connections to help them along as is required in today's Turkey.
On Loxley, if there really is a reservoir and trap, it might even make more money as a gas storage project. Just need ~10bcf storage capacity to double UK's current storage which up the road at Humbly Grove.
Arreton? The make-up of the IoW planning committee is no longer Conservative led, but rather a mixture including Green and Lib Dems under an 'Alliance' since the council elections. Not exactly fossil-fuel enthusiasts, like most of their constituents. At one time Arreton was UKOG's 'flagship' project according to Lenigas, supported by a very poorly researched CPR, but with two dry holes already. Perhaps the planning committee will reject the application and send SS a big bill for wasting planning officers time.
NoelShemsky
CLNR's English UCG licences were under the Dee Estuary and offshore NW England The idea was that the UCG process would happen underground but offshore using deviated injection and syngas producers connected to an onshore processing plant. But once the politicians smelt 'votes' they canned it, although the Scottish extremists banned all onshore drilling.
there are two types of licence for coal bed methane. One is Coal Mine Methane where methane is simply extracted from abandoned mine workings. The other is Coal Bed Methane where new horizontal wells are drilled into coal seams. Either way the produced gas includes methane and, usually, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide impurities which have to be separated to bring the methane to UK NTS Grid specification.
In conventional gas fields with sandstone reservoirs the H2S reacts with iron to create iron sulphate ('fools gold) and the CO2 reacts with other minerals - a natural cleaning process in 'god's great geochemical factory' under our feet.
Bothe Co2 and H2S are bad news because they reduce calorific value and are highly corrosive in steelpipelines and other equipment.
Noel
Salmond was all for ucg before the jock referendum, and the subsequent oil price collapse. But Krankie’s left wing lot don’t like oil/gas despite it transforming their economy from farming and fishing in the 1970s. Best leave them to stew in their own neeps an tatties.
CNRL was UCG - (Underground Coal Gasification) - nixed by Mrs Krankie’s ban on any drilling onshore north of the border.
And does Putin really have a big valve on his desk in the Kremlin?
https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Why-Are-Gas-Prices-So-High.pdf
- so it’s not Putin operating a giant valve on his desk in the Kremlin - - -
https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Why-Are-Gas-Prices-So-High.pdf
Raithlin’s contribution to UK work has been sponsored by Canadian bond-holders of convertible debentures in Connaught and, more recently partly by Reabold shareholders.
The whole venture is debt-financed and Raithlin/Connaught bond-holders will be looking for a return - I dare say by an IPO in London.
But, since 2008, Raithlin failed in one well the Raithlin Basin on N Ireland and a follow-up well planning application was thrown out on fears over fracking. Licence relinquished.
If the next well test at West Newton fails to flow it’s possible Connaught investors may accept the reality that WN is non-commercial and leave Reabold holding the baby. Then what? -
Suggestions on a post-card to Heavenly Twins, c/o Reabold Resources.
Humbly Grove provides about 20% of UK storage following closure of Rough. It contains about 3% of NTS daily demand. Since start-up in 2005 it has injected, withdrawn and treated about 20 bcc per year. Humbly Grove has a working volume of about 10 bcf with withdrawal/injection rates of about 280 mmscfd.
FD
Ever since Sea Gem sank on West Sole in 1966, operators have become very careful about sea-bed surveys.
Only a four months ago a jack-up punch through and sank in Malaysia
https://youtu.be/QYO4YzwUfd0
No lives lost, but an expensive problem to solve.
FD
We should remember neither GS nor AN have been involved with offshore drilling - so they really don’t have much experience.
Besides, with Shell as partner and technical operator, I trust their JOA requires statements by Deltic to be approved by Shell.
Three wells have been drilled in P2252 already using jack-up rigs and Shell will have reviewed traces of footprints of the spud cans on the sea bed. Also, site-surveying must meet certain HSE standards because punch through is the main cause of accidents related to jack-up foundation failure.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr289.pdf
https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Gas-Quarterly-Review-Issue-14.pdf
24th September
Chambery
Thanks for the reminder. As the farm-out document says, Zechstein porosity is prognosed to be 10%. Various publications on the Z2 Haupdolomite specify between 8% and 13% porosity so 10% is mid-range. But matrix permeability in these magnesian limestones is in the range of 0.5 to 1.5 millidarcy - it’s ‘tight’.
As you would expect in a carbonate reservoir, there is only a vague relationship between porosity and permeability, mainly due to the diagenetic history of the rock which is also extensively documented. So finding fractures - which are essential for commercial flow is critical - but only if the tight matrix can deliver.
I have a substantial holding in Deltic, but just caution others against unwarranted enthusiasm for a commercial outcome at Pensacola.
The Pensacola area was originally mapped using PSTM 3D seismic originally acquired in 1993 by Marathon and subsequently reprocessed. Seismic quality is generally good as shown in previous CPR reports and certainly good enough to predict fracture corridors. But the main reservoir risk is matrix permeability - will it flow if there is any gas. The second risk is gas source. None of the 3 wells in the Pensacola area reported gas in Zechstein dolomites, although non-commercial gas is present in the underlying Carboniferous.
Sure, the geological chance of success may be encouraging - but will gas flow?
draft
Darach discovery certainly boosted hopes of new Zechstein discoveries, but Pensacola already has 3 dry holes on it - 41/10-1, 41/10-2z and 41/5-1.
Investors should beware of high expectations for P2252
Surely the next move is for Cairn to simply take over Deltic and pre-empt a messy merger with Parkmead. Now they’ve got zillions of rupees in the bank should be easy.