RE: NEWS / NEWS AGAIN CALGARY, Nov. 21, 2012/CNW/ - Bengal Energy (TSX: BNG) ("Bengal", or "the Company") reports that the first exploration well in the Tookoonooka drilling campaign, Caracal-1, is a new oil discovery. This new discovery has established light oil on a new and unexplored trend with the Caracal-1 well being the first well to be drilled on the very large 654,335 acre Authority to Prospect ("ATP") 732 (the "Tookoonooka Block") in the last 15 years. Seismic mapping defines a large structure, with the Caracal-1 closure alone estimated to cover an area of 5.5 square miles (approximately 3,500 acres).
The well was drilled as a vertical well and after being perforated, recovered free oil on swab testing commingled across two different sands in the Wyandra formation. Analysis of the down-hole pressure data collected during the production testing has commenced and will be used in conjunction with the final core analysis results to provide further definition of the reservoir characteristics encountered by Caracal-1. Preliminary core analysis suggests that the Wyandra permeability at Caracal-1 is similar to that seen in the Viking and Cardium plays in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. These plays are now being exploited using horizontal wells and multi-stage fracture stimulation technology. Engineering and geological work is planned by Bengal to determine how similar horizontal multi-stage fracturing could be applied at Caracal.
Offset pool analogies from the Wyandra zone show oil accumulations which exhibit stratigraphic variability across the accumulation, with variations in permeability and therefore productivity. Additional geoscience analysis incorporating existing 3D seismic and data acquired from the Caracal-1 well will allow for high grading of future drill locations targeting areas of thicker and more permeable sand development within the structure. This planning will also incorporate a design for potential fracture stimulation and/or horizontal drilling programs.
Caracal-1 is located approximately 40 kilometers southeast of the producing Ipundu/Tarbat oil fields which have produced to date in excess of 3.5 million barrels from the Wyandra/Murta interval. Caracal-1 was drilled, completed and tested utilizing the 100% owned Bengal 1 Rig. The Bengal 1 Rig will be put on standby until early in 2013 while additional geoscience and integration of new Caracal-1 downhole data are used in planning an appraisal drilling program.
"We are pleased with this new oil discovery on our first exploration well in the 100% working interest Tookoonooka Block and look forward to results from both the potential fracture stimulation of this well and upcoming appraisal drilling programs. We see the potential for significant Wyandra light oil development on the Caracal structure. This makes nine successful wells on our Cooper Basin permits, including eight at Cuisinier, and portends an active drilling program in 2013," said Chayan Chakrabarty, President and CEO of Bengal.
The Tookoonooka Block is located on the southeast flank of the Cooper Basin in Australiain an area of established oil and gas production spread across a number of producing oilfields, crude oil facilities, the Tarbat to JacksonOil Pipeline and the Eromanga Refinery. Bengal has defined five other primary exploration drilling locations in the Tookoonooka Block which will target both the Wyandra and deeper formations.
In addition to appraisal drilling planned for the Tookoonooka Block, Bengal also has two active drilling programs planned for calendar 2013: i) a multi-well development drilling at its producing Cuisinier oil property in the Cooper Basin, and ii) a multi-well exploratory drilling program at its CY-ONN-2005/1 permit located onshore Cauvery Basin in India, with locations identified from the 575 square kilometers of 3D seismic shot in 2012