Carnarvon Petroleum Limited (ASX:CVN) will begin drilling the Dorado-3 well to further appraise the Dorado oil and gas discovery on WA’s North West Shelf after moving the rig to the well location this weekend.
Dorado-3 is the second appraisal well of the Dorado oil and gas field which was discovered in 2018.
This well will be drilled about 900 metres northwest of the Dorado-1 discovery location with the Noble Tom Prosser rig used in the previous Dorado-2 appraisal well.
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The Dorado field is about 160 kilometres north-northeast of Port Hedland in the Bedout Sub-basin in water depth of around 95 metres.
Map of WA-437-P showing the Dorado field.
Dorado and Roc oil and gas fields reside in WA-437-P in which Carnarvon holds a 20% interest with the remainder held by Santos Ltd (ASX:STO).
The Dorado-1 exploration well discovered hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in the Caley, Baxter, Crespin and Milne members of the Lower Keraudren Formation.
Dorado-2 appraisal well, around 2.2 kilometres northeast of the Dorado-1 well, confirmed hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in the Caley, Baxter and Milne members.
Importantly, it also demonstrated connectivity within each reservoir between the two wells.
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Dorado-3 has been designed to enhance the joint venture’s confidence in the subsurface characteristics and confirm reservoir productivity.
Most likely lithology section showing Dorado-3 down-dip of Dorado-1 and up-dip of Dorado-2.
The JV plans to conduct two, and potentially up to three, flow tests on Dorado-3 targeting the Caley, Baxter and Milne reservoirs, as well as acquire about 380 metres of full-bore core in these members as well as the Crespin Member.
This will result in a significant amount of new data to further characterise the Dorado field.