Carnarvon Petroleum Limited (ASX:CVN) and Dorado oil and gas project partner Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) are about to begin coring across the Caley and Baxter members of the Dorado-2 appraisal well.
This well is the first appraisal well of the world-class Dorado oil and gas field offshore Western Australia which was discovered in the latter half of last year.
The JV partners plan to acquire around 200 metres of whole bore core across the Caley and Baxter members before continuing drilling, with Logging While Drilling (LWD) tools, to a planned total depth of around 4,500 metres.
READ: Carnarvon Petroleum advances to next section of Dorado-2 appraisal well offshore WA
Once the well has been drilled to the total depth, the plan is to run Wireline Logging Tools across the relevant reservoir sections.
Map of WA-437-P showing the Dorado field.
This coring process follows further progress with the well, including completing the 12-1/4-inch section and setting and cementing in place the 9-5/8-inch casing.
The 8-1/2-inch hole has subsequently been drilled to the coring point of about 3,935 metres measured depth.
Due to the nature of coring operations, no information will be available to the joint venture during this process.
The Dorado-1 well, which is about 2.2 kilometres from Dorado-2, discovered hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in the Caley, Baxter, Crespin and Milne members of the Lower Keraudren Formation.
It intersected net 130 metres of hydrocarbons of which almost 80 metres was within the Caley reservoir, thus making this the main target for the appraisal well.
READ: Carnarvon Petroleum starts appraisal well at major North West Shelf discovery
The Dorado-2 well is in the Bedout Sub-basin, about 160km north-northeast of Port Hedland, and is within the WA-437-P licence in which Carnarvon holds a 20% interest.
Drilling is in water depth of approximately 95 metres.
After completing Dorado-2, the Noble Tom Prosser jack-up drilling rig is scheduled to drill the near-field exploration well Roc South-1 followed by the Dorado-3 appraisal well.