RE:RE:news, god i hope they have cause to drill deep 2I am not a drilling engineer but I can say that intermediate casing is installed as part of the wellbore design based on hole characteristics, formation pressures and stability etc. to ensure drilling and wellbore integrity. Some wells can get away with surface casing (well foundation and to protect useable groundwater), production casing and tubing. So in this case they will also need to install production casing and tubing to perforate, complete and flow the well. From an investment perspective I don't believe it means much. 2609 m may just be the point where the next stable formation is to terminate/set the intermediate casing. Yes, correct for coring they can actually bring a cored sample up to look at and analyze - anouther piece to the puzzle to determine porosity/permeability/geology etc. of the particular zone and if/how to complete.