State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) subsidiary Frontier Exploration Services (FES) has awarded a contract to America’s multinational corporation, Halliburton, to test an appraisal of Shell’s Kolmani River gas discovery which is located on the Gongola basin of Benue Trough in Bauchi state.
Prospecting for oil and gas in Kolmani river-2well is one of the recent forays of the government into inland exploration in northern parts of the country.
According to intelligence report from Norwegians based Upstreamonline, Exploration Services Unit of the NNPC has awarded contracts to one of the world’s largest oil field service companies Halliburton to run Drill Stem Tests (DSTs) and Tubing Conveyed Perforation (TCP) on the Kolmani River-2, in Bauchi State, at the Gongola Basin, in the country’s northeast region.
Also, Africa Oil and gas report also quoted sources as saying the application of DST (a tool for measuring reservoir flow rates), is usually an indication that the results of wireline logging have signalled that the well has encountered some commercial pool of hydrocarbon.
“The sand is better developed at this location and when we were to hang the 9 5/8 inch casing at some few feet deeper than 10,000feet (3,048metres), we were hardly able to find a shale level to hang”, one source told Africa Oil and gas report .
“We are drilling with a water-based mud, so there are no issues about the stability of the wellbore”. The story changed in the 8 ½ inch hole, according to our findings. The rate of penetration of the drill bit was so low from 13,100ft to 13, 250ft, according to field report, indicating tighter formation.
The company has kept a tight lid on information, but Africa Oil+Gas Report learns that several feet of natural gas and oil may have been encountered, although the case for commerciality is up in the air.
Kolmani River-2 will be appraising the 1999 gas discovery made by Shell in Kolmani River-1. The Anglo Dutch major drilled the well to a depth of 3,000metres. Although there were no tests, the company booked 33Billion standard cubic feet of gas as possible estimated recoverable reserves based on some petrophysical results.
The Kolmani River-II Well, according to projections, is one of four oil and gas wells that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC said were being planned for drilling this year on the Gongola Basin to further test the prospects identified around Kolmani River-1, Nasara-1 and Kuzari-1
In February, President Muhammadu Buhari had flagged off the spud-in (drilling) of the Kolmani River II Well, which is located on the Gongola basin of Benue Trough in Bauchi state.
The river basins include the Chad Basin, Gongola Basin, Anambra Basin, Sokoto Basin, Dahomey Basin, Bida Basin and the Benue Trough.
“The main purpose of this well is to start some massive appraisal of the discovery that was made way back in 1999 of some gas reserves in Kolmani River 1 and, so far, the drilling has been going on smoothly to enable exploration,” former Group Managing Director of NNPC Maikanti Baru said in February.
Reiterating the presidential directive, the NNPC GMD said a deeper search for oil in the north will enable the corporation to extensively appraise the gas reserves discovered in the region in 1999.
He said drilling on the Kolmani River-II site has been going on smoothly, adding that as at Wednesday morning, the corporation had reached depths of 10,075 feet, with a target to reach 14,270 feet.
Shedding more light on the investment opportunities in Nigeria, Baru observed that the NNPC’s Frontier Exploration Service is currently drilling the Kolmani River-2 Well, where desktop estimates revealed about 400 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas.
