WA’s new quarantine laws have offered Buru Energy a project boost. The reduced 7-day isolation period means the well test crew currently stranded in Perth quarantine facilities can mobilise to the Rafael 1 well site to carry out the all-important flow tests of the ‘wet’ gas discovery in WA’s Canning Basin.
Wet gas denotes a high volume of light liquids such as LPGs and condensate that flow out of the well bore along with methane and can provide a valuable additional product.
The specialist testing crew for the campaign were finally mobilised from Queensland and South Australia earlier this month after being locked out of WA for months due to Covid-driven border restrictions. The testing equipment has been sitting frustratingly idle on site.
Buru was expecting a 14-day quarantine period for the crew however changes to WA quarantine requirements announced on Monday mean the personnel conducting the Rafael flow test will now be released from quarantine a week earlier than expected.
The company said this will mean the start of the test program is brought forward and it is expected to start in mid rather than late February, subject to any weather or operational delays.
The Rafael test program will include a series of flow periods and shut-ins, critical steps in determining the reservoir’s deliverability, gas composition, fluids, pressures and potential boundaries.
When drilled in 2021, the Rafael 1 well encountered an interpreted series of significant gas columns and was suspended pending a flow test of the Ungani Dolomite equivalent reservoir section.
Buru says analysis of petrophysical and wireline data from Rafael’s net reservoir section suggests the zone is similar to the dolomite reservoir at the nearby oil producing Ungani field.
If the Rafael-1 well proves itself to be another commercial Canning Basin field of the same ilk as the robust and cash producing Ungani field then Buru might start turning a few heads.
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