There’s been much applause about
Chevron’s recent announcement of a
6,000 bopd test at the Jack 2 well in the
Walker Ridge area of the deepwater
Lower Tertiary play in the Gulf of Mexico.
But to many industry watchers, the
Kaskida well discovery to the northwest
of Jack 2 in Keathley Canyon Block 292
– announced about two weeks earlier –
was far more significant in a number of
ways.
The BP-operated Kaskida well
reportedly was drilled in almost 6,000
feet of water to a depth of 32,500 feet.
The well encountered 800 feet of net
pay, compared to 350 feet in Jack 2. In
fact, the reported pay section is greater
than any of the other discoveries thus far
in the Lower Tertiary trend in the Gulf.
But the significance of the Kaskida
goes far beyond the amount of net pay.
“The BP well is the first established
pay in the Keathley Canyon protraction
area,” said Jim Flanagan at IHS Energy.
“It shows the trend does continue
between the areas to the east – where
Cascade, Chinook, St. Malo and Jack
were drilled – and what’s over to the
west, where you have the Perdido fold
belt and the Great White discovery
made by Shell and some of the other
discoveries made in that area.
“The BP well lends support to think
that the trend actually extends from the
Perdido fold belt area over to Chinook
and Cascade,” Flanagan noted.
The intrigue doesn’t stop here.
“Far more important than that
discovery is that to the southeast part of
the block in Keathley Canyon, Unocal
drilled the Sardinia well several years
ago,” said Bob Esser at Cambridge
Energy Research Associates.
“It was a dry hole, but it reported
1,100 feet of sand in it,” Esser said.
“What this is telling you is that the
Keathley Canyon block has a lot of
reservoir potential. All they need to do is
find the trapping mechanism, which
obviously was not there for Sardinia but
is there for the Kaskida well.”
This serves to underscore the
importance of the timing of oil migration
and the need to have structure in place
prior to migration.
“If migration in the Keathley Canyon
area was occurring at the same time as
it was over in Walker Ridge,” Flanagan
said, “then you would want to identify
structures at least as old as the Jack and
St. Malo structures.”
Industry interest in this locale clearly
is huge.
“In the last lease sale covering this
area in August, six of the 10 highest-bid
blocks were in Keathley Canyon,” Esser
noted. “Those in the Kaskida well know
the potential of this area, and those and
others bid heavily on Keathley Canyon
blocks.
“With all this new interest and the
blocks already owned,” Esser said, “we
would expect a heavy drilling slate
coming up fairly soon.
“Where Chevron talks about three to
15 billion barrels in the trend, Keathley
Canyon is where a lot of it will take place
to get up to that number.”