Empire Oil and Gas has announced that completion and testing plans for Empire’s recent gas discovery at its 100% owned Red Gully North-1 exploration well (RGN-1) in EP 389 are progressing to plan with all service contracts in place, government approvals submitted and long lead equipment received.
A contract has been awarded to Enerdrill Pty Ltd, which secures the use of Enerdrill’s Completion Rig-1 and will cover well completion activities at RGN-1.
The completion equipment has arrived in Perth and is undergoing testing in sub-assemblies prior to running the completion. Land access approvals have been granted. Empire has also made key submissions to the West Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) including:
- RGN-1 Completion and Testing Environment Plan Bridging Document.
- RGN-1 Well Completion Safety Management system.
- RGN-1 Well Management Plan Update for completion and testing operations.
- RGN-1 Testing Safety Management System.
Subject to government approvals being received, the completion operations on RGN-1 are expected to begin on 23 March with testing operations expected to start in mid-April.
The testing objectives include determining the deliverability of gas and condensate and recovering hydrocarbon samples from each zone. A successful production test will allow significant contingent resources to be converted to reserves, thereby commercially justifying an ultimate investment decision to construct a pipeline tie-back to the Red Gully processing plant. A tie-back of RGN1 to the Red Gully plant will support an extension of plant life or the expansion of production capacity.
Empire CEO, Ken Aitken, commented: “Empire is pleased to extend our relationship with Enerdrill for completion rig services after their good performance on the drilling of Red Gully North-1 last year. Good progress has been made on the planning and we look forward to a safe and efficient completion and testing programme.”
Edited from press release by Angharad Lock