Carnarvon Petroleum Limited (ASX:CVN) is about to start drilling set-up for the Dorado-1 well which will target gas and liquids at the Phoenix project on the North West Shelf.
The Ensco-107 jack-up drilling rig is near the well location offshore Western Australia after arriving from Singapore.
Carnarvon and project operator Quadrant Energy are waiting for the swell to subside before the rig moves into the drilling location.
READ: Carnarvon Petroleum expects to start drilling for gas and liquids at Dorado-1 by end of May
Once on location, the legs will be jacked down onto the seafloor and the rig prepared for the start of drilling.
It will be the second well in the current program of Carnarvon and Quadrant with drilling at the nearby Phoenix South-3 well underway.
The primary objective of the Dorado-1 well is to assess the gas and liquids potential in the Caley Member.
Probable gas prospect
Dorado is considered as a probable gas prospect with significant associated condensate.
There is also the possibility for the structure to contain a substantial oil accumulation.
The Dorado structure at the Caley interval is estimated to contain a gross mean recoverable prospective resource of 545 Bscf of gas and 30 million barrels of associated condensate, which is equivalent to 125 million barrels of oil.
Multiple secondary targets have been identified in the Crispin and Milne members, and these will also be assessed by the Dorado-1 exploration well.
READ: Carnarvon Petroleum’s Phoenix South-3 well reaches 3,733 metres targeting North West Shelf gas and liquids
A semi-sub rig is drilling the Phoenix South-3 well in the adjacent WA-435-P permit.
This well is setting casing at 3,733 metres (measured depth) before drilling ahead to the Caley formation target at around 5,300 metres.