Couple of folks have asked me about RA calling TD before the planned 12,500 ft so I thought I’d put a more distilled answer together. Based on an email from Grayson it was said they called TD early because they identified the target zones of interest and did not want to risk drilling blind further for fear of encountering a fault. In a very simplified answer, they did not want to risk losing the wellbore because they have high interest in re-entering the wellbore at a later time. If the wellbore was of no value or they didn’t find what they were looking for, they would probably not have a problem drilling on and incurring the risk of losing the well. I see this caution as highly positive because it shows the wellbore is of value and they want it for future operations. They have said as much as well. Now here is the more complex answer of how they might risk losing the wellbore by drilling blind. Also, drilling blind means they don’t really have any idea what’s coming up in terms of pressure ramps or formation. Generally drilling into a fault is not a large problem and occurs every day in the oil field, but it can create a lost circulation event. When drilling into a fault you may encounter formation fractures or poor formation consolidation and possibly a lower formation pressure. This is where you can get into a problem with drilling fluid (mud) loss. Due the lower pressure and/or fractured formation you’ll start losing the mud to the formation. When this happens, it’s called a lost circulation event. When you start losing fluid to the formation you need to stop the losses by first using LCM (loss circulation material). Depending on the size of the fractures, it could be very difficult to stop these losses. I’ve drilled across faults where we’ve gone on total losses (100% of the pumped fluid into the hole does not return to the surface). You need to immediately start making new mud at the surface to replace the lost mud and pumping ‘pills’ which is a quantity of mud loaded up with LCM. The idea is to plug/seal off the fractures and stop the fluid losses. Think of clogging a drain that has a screen on it. Keep in mind this is a remote location and Valence DF does not have a resupply warehouse nearby. All the mud products were shipped by boat into country. Lead time on this is usually 2-3 months. They’ve most likely shipped in what was programmed for the wells plus margin of error and contingency products. This is by no means unlimited. Now one might ask why is losing your drilling mud a critical event? One of the primary functions of drilling fluid is to exert hydrostatic pressure on the formation to prevent gas or water from entering the well. If fluid from the formation enters the wellbore it’s called a kick and it will rise to the surface. Uncontrolled gas kicks can cause a well to blow out. Deepwater Horizon is an extreme example of an uncontrolled gas kick. I won’t go into explaining well control and circulating out a kick, but they’ve got good youtube videos explaining it. Keep in mind I am not saying RA thought the rig would go boom, but I’m merely pointing out the possible extreme risk. In a worst case scenario RA would not be able to stop the fluid loss and would be forced to cement the wellbore to stop the losses and prevent a blow out. This would essentially lose the well for them and they would have to sidetrack and drill a new well. Since RA found what they’re looking for and they want to keep this well, they decided not to incur the risk of drilling further until they have 2D seismic which will give them a better idea of what they’re drilling into.