Empire progresses Carpentaria-2H

Empire Energy has successfully completed the hydraulic stimulation of Carpentaria-2H in the Beetaloo Basin.

The stimulation marked a key milestone in the largest drilling, stimulation and flow testing program in the company’s history.

The Carpentaria-2H well was stimulated at 21 different stages along its length, which also represents the greatest number of stimulation stages across any project in the Beetaloo Basin.

The stimulation was undertaken in order to test a series of stimulation fluid systems in order to optimise future performance of projects at the basin.

Managing Director Alex Underwood has said that the stimulation was undertaken without and environmental or safety incident.

It is also the first time an operator in the Beetaloo Basin has managed to place multiple slickwater stages without screen out, when sand obstructs the perforations. 97 per cent of the designed proppant volume was placed into the stimulated stages.

“If slickwater is demonstrated to be productive, it is likely to drive significant cost efficiencies in future development scenarios,” said Underwood.

Empire Energy stimulated an effective length of 927 m at Carpentaria 2-H. The originally planned 26 stages had to be reduced to 21 in order to avoid a geological fault and mitigate risk.

Empire has  cleaned out the wellbore and fluid flowback has commenced. Approximate 4 per cent of fluid was recovered in the first 24 hours. The company expects stabilised gas flow rates in the coming weeks.

“A key objective of this well is to test a series of stimulation fluid systems to optimise future production performance. I am pleased that we have been able to successfully stimulate numerous stages of each fluid type whilst placing the target amount of proppant in each stimulated stage,” said Underwood.

The stimulation of the project places the preparations for Empire’s 2022 drilling plan on schedule, and the stimulation was completed within budget. Rig mobilisation is expected to commence in September of this year.

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