RE: Incredible update on West Newton21 Jun 2022 10:00
In the last six months, a large amount of geological and engineering work has been undertaken. Following the testing of the WNB-1z and WNA-2 wells in Q3/Q4 2021, the information gathered has undergone detailed analysis, including additional lab work. The outcome of this work indicates that the Kirkham Abbey reservoir shows good porosity with both matrix and natural fracture permeability, but the reservoir is very sensitive to water. This means that drilling with water based muds, as has been done to date, has caused near wellbore damage/plugging. This has been compounded, rather than remedied, by the use of water based acids during the completion programme. The conclusion is that drilling with oil based muds (OBM) through the reservoir section should minimise any formation damage, allowing the oil and gas to flow into the wellbore more freely.
Further modelling indicates that the drilling of horizontal wells, which would increase the access of the wellbore to the Kirkham Abbey reservoir and the associated natural fracturing, should allow for increased flow of gas and oil.
Additional studies are currently underway to determine if the well completion programmes could also be optimised to improve reservoir flow rates and gas and oil recoveries.