Natural gas reached surface on three separate flow tests at ReconAfrica's Kavango West 1X well in Namibia, the first hydrocarbons ever produced to surface onshore the country. The gas came from the uppermost of three zones tested in the Elandshoek formation.
ReconAfrica holds the well with BW Energy, on a 20% working interest, and NAMCOR, on a 10% carried working interest. A carried interest means a partner's share of costs is covered by the others up to an agreed point. For an upstream play at this stage the sequence matters: flow first, composition second, and only then a decision on how to develop it.
What was tested, and what follows
The results are preliminary and cover the three lowest zones in the Elandshoek. Samples have gone for compositional analysis, which establishes what the gas actually contains. Those results are expected in the coming weeks. The rest of the produced hydrocarbons were flared at surface.
Testing equipment is now moving uphole to the shallower Huttenberg formation, where three more zones will be tested. That section covers 182 meters of reservoir, including 76 net meters of hydrocarbon pay identified on well logs. Net pay is the thickness the logs indicate can actually flow, rather than the total rock drilled through. Each zone is expected to take up to 10 days, and ReconAfrica expects to report again by late August.
A sidetrack is under consideration
President and CEO Brian Reinsborough said the operations team is evaluating a horizontal or deviated sidetrack from the wellbore. The aim would be to intersect a larger reservoir interval and the natural fracture network running across the structure. He pointed to analogous reservoirs elsewhere in the world as the basis for expecting a significant gain in productivity.
A sidetrack drills a new branch off an existing hole rather than starting a well from scratch.
