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Friday, October 11, 2013
Africa Hydrocarbons issued an operational update on its BHN-1 exploration well on Tunisia’s Bouhajla Permit. As previously announced, the BHN-1 well penetrated 245 meters of chalky limestones of the targeted Abiod formation within the Bouhajla North Prospect.
During drilling, elevated levels of C1-C4 (methane-butane) were noted in the mud log with indications of both open and healed fractures noted in the drill cuttings. Fluid losses during drilling of between 0.8 and 3 cubic meters per hour were encountered throughout the Abiod. Hole stability issues below the intermediate casing string dictated a decision to case the wellbore rather than risk losing the hole, and then follow up with cased-hole neutron/sonic/gamma logs for initial evaluation purposes.
Africa Hydrocabons said that further log evaluation was conducted on September 25 using a pulse-neutron logging tool, previously unavailable in country, to determine pore saturations within the Abiod. The results of the pulse-neutron log are indicative of elevated hydrocarbon saturations throughout the Abiod reservoir section with no indication of having intersected a water contact. The pulse-neutron log interpretation was consistent with the other data and observations related to the wellbore.
Typically, Abiod reservoirs rely on naturally-occurring fractures for the production of hydrocarbons. The non-fractured Abiod section in BHN-1 has characteristically low permeability, however several zones of enhanced permeability due to apparent natural fractures and faulting have been interpreted from the logs and confirm expectations based on 3D seismic interpretation of the Bouhajla North structure. Two, six-meter intervals over interpreted fracture zones near the bottom of the logged Abiod reservoir section have been identified for possible flow and testing analysis. The BHN-1 completion protocol will be similar to that successfully employed by the operator of the Sidi el Kilani field 25 km to the east of BHN-1. After perforating, an acid wash of the perforations will be carried out followed by an acid squeeze into the formation.
Cleaning and treating of the drilling fluids/solids and removal from the waste pit at BHN-1 is underway and is expected to take approximately three weeks to complete before commencement of further operations.
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