UPDATE--SHABEEL--1 UPDATE FROM RANGE
During the quarter the Joint Venture successfully spudded the historic Shabeel-1 well on the Dharoor Block in Puntland, Somalia which is being drilled to a target depth of 3,800 metres and is the first of two highly prospective exploration wells to be drilled in the Dharoor Valley by the Joint Venture.
Preparations also commenced on the site construction on the second exploration well – Shabeel North – site with the setting of surface casing and drilling of a 50m pilot hole, with construction continuing during the quarter that has seen the Shabeel North site nearing completion post quarter end in readiness to receive the drilling rig following the successful completion of the Shabeel well.
The last reported depth of the well was 2,953m with casing having been set to circa 2,700m. The well drilled through primarily tight limestones and shales of Lower Tertiary to Upper Cretaceous age and encountered a 355 metre section of Upper Cretaceous sands and shales of the Tisje / Jesomma Formations at a depth of approximately 1,660 metres. The sands in this interval exhibited both oil and gas shows and petrophysical analysis of downhole electrical logs indicates a potential pay zone of between 12 and 20 metres in the section. Attempts to sample formation fluids using a wireline formation tester were not successful and thus the zone will require cased hole testing to confirm whether they are oil bearing. The well is drilling ahead with an expected TD (3,800m) of mid May.
The Shabeel and Shabeel North prospects are located on a Jurassic aged rift system which is part of the same system that has proven to be highly productive in the Masila and Shabwa Basins in Yemen that contain an estimated 6 billion barrels of oil*. Both prospects are very large fault block prospects with internal estimates of Prospective Resources of over 300 million barrels of oil (mean 100% basis), with Range’s 20% attributable interest being over 60 million barrels. Source rocks are expected to be rich Jurassic Kimmeridgian shales in the deep portion of the rift immediately down dip from the Shabeel prospects. Reservoirs are expected to be sandstones and carbonates of the Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic systems analogous to Yemen.