abce certificate
Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 00:20 GMT | more >>

Puk Puk waits on Coral Sea rig



By Upstream staff 

Photo by Austral Pacific


Rift Oil said the Coral Sea rig is due at the Puk Puk-1 well site, at the Douglas gas find in Petroleum Production Licence 235, in Papua New Guinea, adding that the probe is due to spud in April.

Rift said preparations were being made for the rig's arrival at the site and third party services contracts finalised.

Puk Puk-1 will be the second well sunk on the field following the drilling of the Douglas-1 discovery in May 2006.

Rift said flow testing equipment would be moved first for use at the Douglas-1 site before being taken to the Puk Puk site.

Douglas-1 has mean potential recoverable gas reserves of 231 billion cubic feet, and Rift believes other structures in the block give an upside total potential of 1 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves.

The Puk Puk-1 well will explore a separate structure to that in the Douglas-1 well. Rift said an appraisal well, Douglas-2 was likely to be drilled after completion of drilling on Puk Puk-1.

The wells are being drilled by a joint venture 65%-owned by Rift and 35%-owned by Australia’s Austral Pacific. The wells are part of the venture’s obligatory work as part of its licence commitments from the PNG Department of Petroleum & Energy.

Drilling of the Puk Puk-1 well is being managed by Kelly Down Consultants.

Rift and Austral Pacific have signed an agreement with Aluminum giant Alcan to supply gas to the company’s planned Gove smelter in northern Australia. The venture will supply up to 40 Bcf per year to the plant via a proposed subsea pipeline.

The companies are also joint owners of the Coral Sea rig, which is designed to be moved by helicopter and has a self-erecting crane on the drill floor, allowing it to be used in very remote areas, Rift said.


Wednesday, 13 February, 2008, 04:49 GMT  | last updated: Wednesday, 13 February, 2008, 09:09 GMT

e-mail this article to a colleague


to email:  from:
comments: