Canacol Energy Ltd. has declared the Pomelo 1 well a natural gas discovery, in the latest of successful drilling campaigns in Colombia’s Magdalena Basin.
Drilled to a total depth of 12,276 feet, the exploration well showed 96 feet of true vertical depth of net gas pay with an average porosity of 21 percent in the primary Cienaga de Oro (CDO) sandstone reservoir, Canacol said in a news release.
“The CDO reservoir was perforated over a 48-foot Interval and was tied into the existing flowline to the Betania substation”, added the Calgary, Canada-based company focusing on Colombia. “The well is producing with a downhole gauge into the Jobo gas treatment facility.
“The well started at a production rate of 4 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscpd) for 6 hours at a choke 21/128”. The rate was subsequently increased to 6 MMscfd and 8 MMscfpd for 6 hours and 24 hours respectively.
“The well was tested at a rate of up to 10 MMscfpd at choke of 30/128”, and is now producing into the Jobo gas treatment plant at a controlled rate of 8 MMscpd”.
Canacol said it was mobilizing the rig that drilled Pomelo to the Chontaduro 1 exploration well, which sits about three kilometers (9,842.5 feet) of the new discovery.
Expected to be spudded before April, “[t]he Chontaduro 1 well is targeting the CDO sandstone reservoir, with a secondary uphole target within the Porquero sandstone reservoir, both of which are productive in the area”, Canacol said.
The wells sit in the VIM21 exploration and production contract, which is 100 percent-owned by Canacol. The conventional gas contract covers 27,410 acres, according to information from Canacol’s website.
The Pomelo discovery follows that of the Lulo discovery in VIM21 last year. Drilled to a total depth of 8,434 feet, the Lulo 1 exploration well encountered 207 feet of true vertical depth of net gas pay with an average porosity of 21percent in the same reservoir as Pomelo, Canacol said in a press release May 3, 2023.
VIM21 is one of 11 Canacol gas contracts in the Lower and Middle Magdalena basins of the South American country, which total 1.5 million net acres. Only one has been put into production, the 16,055-acre Esperanza, based on Canacol’s online inventory of its assets.
Canacol holds a 100 percent stake in 10 of the contracts. India’s state-owned ONGC Videsh Ltd. owns a 50 percent interest in the SSJN7 contract, Canacol says on its website.
Besides gas, Canacol also owns oil assets in Colombia through 20 percent stakes in the VMM2 and VMM3 contracts with operator Houston, Texas-based ConocoPhillips Co., as well as the producing Rancho Hermoso contract (30 percent) with Colombia’s state-owned Ecopetrol SA.
Canacol had 106.6 million barrels of oil equivalent in proven and probable (2P) oil and gas reserves, valued at $1.8 billion post-tax, as of yearend 2023, it said in an update March 21.
“In 2023 we added 20 Bcfe [billion cubic feet equivalent] of 2P reserves and deemed volumes, an increase of 3 percent, and added 21 Bcfe to the 1P [proved] reserve and deemed volumes for an increase of 6 percent”, chief operating officer Ravi Sharma said in a statement at the time.
“Our core fields, Clarinete, Nelson, Aguas Vivas and Pandereta continue to perform well and saw increases in 1P reserves.
“Our 2P increases were limited due to lack of exploration success at the near field Cereza and Piña Norte prospects, and our inability to get the Natilla exploration well drilled to the target interval due to technical difficulties drilling the well and the sidetrack”.
