A horizontal exploration shale well drilled by PetroFrontier in the Northern Territory, Australia, struck a hydrocarbon-bearing pay zone of 25 m in total vertical depth, the company said.
From the Owen-3 well sidetrack, 32.5 m of core was cut and retrieved from the Lower Arthur Creek “hot shale” and Thorntonia Carbonate formations, and the sample seeped oil and exhibited natural hydrocarbon fluorescence. The horizontal sidetrack is the third drilled at Owen-3 and is expected to reach a measured depth of up to 1000 m in about 3 weeks.
The original vertical section of the Owen-3 has been drilled to a measured depth of 1180 m in the Southern Georgina Basin. Completions of the complex multidirectional wellbore system will begin later this month.
The company is planning a 10-stage fracture stimulation at each of its three wells in the Lower Arthur Creek hot shale, the MacIntyre 2-H, Baldwin-2Hst1, and Owen-3H wells. Flow tests will occur after fracturing.
