Thunderbolt #1 well approved, Hunt rig #3 to move onto Bellevue #1
  by: OilOnline
  Friday, October 10, 2008

Empire Energy Corporation International announced that Spauldings, a local Tasmanian drilling contractor for its Australian subsidiary Great South Land Minerals, Ltd. who had already completed an 8.5in (216mm) pilot hole to a depth of 870ft (272m), established a 20in conductor at the top of the hole into solid dolerite rock at a depth of approximately 42ft (13m) and have now enlarged the hole to 17.5in (470mm). The 8.5in pilot hole is being used to guide the larger 17.5in (470mm) air hammer drill bit to a depth of 870ft (272m). This will allow the casing shoe to be set by Hunt within the fused Triassic sandstone and should assure good pressure testing for the hole. Hunt Rig #3, which is intended to be moved onto the Bellevue #1 site on Tuesday October 14, should be able to proceed to drill a 12.5in (335mm) open hole into the expected potential pay zone after the 13.5in (362mm) casing has been cemented and the blow out preventers have been secured at the well head.

The Company also announced that the state government of Tasmania has given GSLM permission to prepare the lease for the Thunderbolt #1 site 30 miles to the south of Bellevue #1 and to drill the top hole. Provided that the rig is inspected, approval has also been given to move the drill rig to Thunderbolt #1 on completion of the Bellevue #1 well.

Empire CEO Malcolm Bendall said, “I am pleased with the conditional permits to drill the Thunderbolt #1 and the Bellevue #1 wells and we expect to proceed to move the Hunt Rig #3 onto the Bellevue #1 site and the Spaulding Rig onto the Thunderbolt #1 site next week. We expect the Hunt Rig to start drilling the deep hole to 2,800m at Bellevue this month. The Spaulding Rig is planned to mobilize to the Thunderbolt #1 well site on completion of the site works and will establish a 20in conductor, then drill on to its target depth of 400m at a hole size of 17.5 inches. Casing is almost finished at Bellevue #1 and the Hunt rig will be on site within a few days. We expect to begin immediately drilling and testing potential reservoirs and three coal measures in the Triassic and Permian sandstones plus Permian oil shales before we encounter potential reservoir sands in the Siluro-Devonian and limestone in the Ordovician. Thunderbolt #1 has equally exciting prospects with the added bonus of possible ancient caves (paleokarst) beneath the Carboniferous unconformity.”

Empire’s Chairman and Chief Geologist Dr. Clive Burrett added, “The Thunderbolt Anticline is a very large structure and was one of our preferred sites even before the structure was confirmed by our seismic data in 2006 and 2007. We expect to intersect coals at 800m (2,625 feet) and 1,250m (4,100 feet) and potential reservoirs in sandstones at 550m (1,800 feet) and 1,270m (4,165 feet) and in limestones at 1,800m (5,900 feet), 2,100m (6,888 feet) and 2,600m (8,528 feet). The sandstones are similar in age and type to producing reservoirs in Oman and in the Cooper Basin (Australia) and the limestones are similar to producing reservoirs in the USA (such as the Viola and Trenton Formations) and in the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang in North West China, where Carboniferous sandstones unconformably overlie producing paleokarst in Ordovician limestones that are remarkably similar to those in Tasmania. All these formations will be fully evaluated for hydrocarbons and helium by mudlogging, wireline logging and drill stem testing.”

Click here for more of Today's News Headlines