Q and A How to drill and oil well in a hostile environment 101
The depth of misunderstanding of the drilling industry on this board is overwhelming, so listen up boys.
Firstly, the progress on this well has been nothing short of amazing. Organizing the rig onsite in Somalia several hundred miles from ready sources of casing, drill pipe, drill bits, never mind supplying a campsite with several hundred rig and security personnel is a major feat on its own. Obviuosly the prize is thought to be well worth it and it is from what I have seen of the geology and the early production of the Yemen wells across the strait.
As the well gets deeper, progress will be slower, the mud weight goes up to keep the hole fluids in the formation and overall everything on the rig takes longer and longer to accomplish. e.g. trippng for a new bit takes up to a shift or two.
This is a wildcat well for all intents and purposes. The succcess rate for wildcat wells is far less than 50%, but in this case, we have the old well drilled by Conoco Phillips or Chevron to follow along on in which there were significant oil shows.
Testing this well and its up to 1/2 dozen production horizons will take several weeks as once again, as testing equi9pment has to be flown in. (notice th airstip in the photos) This takes time and several large air freight shpments. The Sclumberger guys or whomever they get to test the well must be flown in too and on it goes. Everrything takes 2 or 3 times longer due to the stretched logistics. This is not impossible to accomplish--just takes longer.
Again, the powers that be believe strongly in this well otherwise they would never have pursued this thing for the last 6 or 7 years. Believe me, there has been a lot of organizing going on behind the scenes with government and various tribes, importing security people etc etc.
HOwever, even given all the above and quite a bit that I have not mentioned, the table is turning as we speak and things seem to be quite promising all things considered. The reason that the HRN CEO made his announcment yesterday was to tell the spec guys to cool their jets for a couple of week or so, so don't get too excited yet.
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