Brookside Energy Ltd (ASX:BRK) has officially spudded the Flames well — its third high-impact target within the SWISH Area of Interest (AOI), a key portfolio in Oklahoma’s prolific Anadarko Basin.
Spudding took place late last week, and now the oil and gas stock has moved onto drilling the wellbore’s vertical section toward the first casing point.
The milestone comes after Brookside rigged up and tested the Kenai 18 drill last week — the same rig that completed its high-impact Rangers well in just 31 days.
Moving ahead, Brookside’s immediate vision is to continue to drill to Flames’ first casing point, trip out of hole, set surface casing and cement.
Busiest period in company’s history
Brookside managing director David Prentice said: “It is very pleasing to see operations proceeding so promptly on this well, the final well in our held-by-production (HBP) program in the SWISH AOI.
“Operationally, this is the busiest period in our company’s history with simultaneous operations on two of our “core of the core” DSU’s in southern SCOOP; spudding the Flames Well and completing the Rangers Well for production at the same time.
“We are looking forward to keeping our shareholders and investors up to date over the coming weeks and months as we see these operations successfully concluded and those efforts turned into oil and gas sales.”
The bigger picture
Flames represents just a small piece of an oil and gas opportunity in the Anadarko Basin.
In May 2021, Brookside kicked things off drilling at the Jewell well — the first in a five-year, 20-plus well development program centred on Brookside’s three owned and operated drill spacing units (DSUs).
All three tenements — known as the Jewell, Rangers and Flames DSUs — sit within the AOI, the epicentre of one of two oil and gas plays where Brookside’s interest lies.
With much of the activity over 2021’s first half centred on Jewell, attention has since turned to the second target in Brookside’s development strategy: the Rangers well.
In July last year, the oil and gas explorer secured further acreage in the Anadarko Basin, acquiring land next to the Rangers DSU and expanding its ‘core of the core’ holding in the tier-one region.
Then, just a few weeks later, Brookside announced a $9 million capital raise to fund the Rangers well’s development.
Fast forward to today, and Rangers is piqued to be the second well in the SWISH AOI to enter production.
But Brookside already has its eye trained on the third well in the SWISH trifecta — the Flames asset.
BRK moved to accelerate the drill program at the third HBP well amid some of the highest oil and gas prices seen in a decade.
What’s more, the Flames drill program is fully funded to completion after the company picked up a $7.5 million funding runway from CPS Capital Group.