Frontera Resources Corporation provides operations update at Block 12 in Georgia

Well T-39

As previously announced by the Company on 29 June 2018, the well T-39, the third well of the three-well drilling and testing campaign at the Company's Taribani complex situated within the Block 12 license in Georgia, has been sidetracked from the existing wellbore and drilled to a vertical depth of 3056 m into the Miocene aged Eldari B formation. Total net pay of 132 m has been calculated for penetrated four oil bearing sandstones, Zones 9, 14, 15 and 19.

On 4 July 2018, Extended Well Testing ("EWT") commenced at T-39 well, by perforation of 21 m interval of Zone 19, situated between 2970 m and 3000 m. After a well clean out, the well started to flow light ( 41.5 API), sweet crude oil together with wet gas and, under natural flow, achieved following production rates: 529 bpd of oil and 600,000 sft³/d of gas using an 8/64 in. chock size, 347 bpd of oil and 425 000 sft³/d of gas using an 7/64 in. chock size and 250 bpd of oil and 350 000 sft³/d of gas through 6/64 in. chock, demonstrating excellent well deliverability. The Company anticipates that production rates from future development wells may be significantly higher.

The CPR volume estimates of 14.8 million bbls of recoverable oil from Zone 19 and 36.5 million bbls of recoverable oil from Zones 20, 23 and 25 of the Eldari B formation, situated between 3056 m and 3350 m interval support the significant potential of the Eldari B formation.

The 300 m interval below Zone 19 was previously penetrated during the drilling of the Niko-1 well, the first well drilled by the Company in Block 12, Georgia. Testing of the interval confirmed the presence of oil and gas bearing Miocene aged marine sandstones with good reservoir properties, flowing light sweet oil and wet natural gas at a commercial volumes.

Gareji formation, situated below the Eldari B reservoir in the Taribani field is estimated to contain 3.2 trillion ft³ of recoverable gas according to the CPR estimates.

Well Ud-2

As previously announced by the Company on 8 May 2018, Extended Well Testing ("EWT") at Ud-2 well, situated in Mtsare Khevi Gas Complex of Block 12 in Georgia, commenced on 21 April 2018.

The Company perforated and with 57 tons of proppant mechanically stimulated 9.5 m out of gross 27 m interval situated between 2519 m and 2446 m of Middle Miocene aged Zone F. During the clean out phase the well flowed dry natural gas, carrier fluid with some proppant and cement particles. It has transpired that cementing around the casing at this section was of very poor quality and, accordingly, did not allow achieving a designed fracture geometry during stimulation and prevented continuous clean out process of the well. Maximum flow rate of 150 000 sft³/d of dry gas has been recorded during the testing period.

Based on the current well test result, the reconfirmation of the presence of Middle Miocene aged gas in Zone F and the potential to increase stimulation efficiency by improving the fracture geometry, the Company is considering the option of sidetracking from the existing wellbore of Ud-2 well. In the meantime preparations underway to plug and abandon the well.

Wells T-45 and Dino-2

The Company is continuing Extended Well Testing (“EWT”) of the wells T-45 and Dino-2 in the Taribani complex, and will update the market about these wells in due course.

Corporate Finance Update

As announced on 7 June 2018, in accordance with the agreement entered into with YA II PN, Ltd (“YA”), the Company redeemed 241 Series A convertible, preferred, redeemable shares in the Company held by YA (“Series A shares”) for the cash amount of US$265 000 (the “Redemption”). Following the Redemption, YA holds the total of 2650 Series A shares.

Zaza Mamulaishvili, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“We are delighted with the excellent early test results from Zone 19 of T-39 well, which support the Company’s plans for a Taribani field development. Current results demonstrate that we have highly productive Eldari B formation, which has been tested first time in Zones 19, 23 and 25 of Niko-1 well and delivered flow rates of 960 bpd of light oil and 1 million sft³/d of wet gas.

The drilling practices used in Niko-1 drilling operations did not allow for drilling a gauged wellbore and, subsequently, very poor cement integrity around the casing led to the production of formation sediments preventing the continuous flow of hydrocarbons into the wellbore after 45 days of well testing. Despite a good reservoir response to a mechanical stimulation, unfortunately the Company has now experienced a similar type of cement integrity issue at Ud-2 well which was drilled by a previous operator in 1981. This prevented the stable flow of natural gas at a higher flow rates. As a large section of the wellbore is usable, the option of sidetracking the unusable section of the well represents a significant cost saving over drilling a new well.

It is very encouraging that our continued improvement in drilling and cementing practices in Block 12 allowed the Company to drill nicely gauged wellbore of T-39 (like in Dino-2 and T-45), important precondition for achieving a good cement integrity around the casing, ensuring sustainable and continuous oil and gas production.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/19072018/frontera-resources-corporation-provides-operations-update-at-block-12-in-georgia/