Elixir Energy shut in its Lorelle-3H well in Queensland's Taroom Trough after unstable flow across stimulation zones. The company will run a tubing string to stabilise the wellbore before resuming production testing.
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Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR) shut in the Lorelle-3H appraisal well in Queensland's Taroom Trough after encountering unstable flow and surging across different stimulation zones, the company said.
The operator plans to run a 2-3/8 inch tubing string to stabilise the wellbore, which should allow the well to move past the current choke setting into uniform single-phase flow. The shut-in also lets stimulation fluid continue soaking into the formation away from the well, which Elixir said could boost near-wellbore permeability and ultimate productivity.
Production testing will resume after the completion work wraps, with the company aiming for the well's maximum gas and condensate rate.
Elixir's clean-up phase is mostly done. The well has flowed back 32% of the injected stimulation fluid, a proportion the company described as high relative to offset data and a sign of good reservoir connectivity. The well has been producing in sustained dual-phase mode, returning both frac fluids and hydrocarbons.
No sand or proppant has been observed, meaning the fracture network is holding. Field gas measurements show low impurity content – 1% or less CO2 and zero H2S. Samples have been sent to a lab for full compositional analysis.
The original Lorelle-3 vertical well, drilled to 3,580 metres total vertical depth, cut multiple thick gas and gas-condensate bearing reservoirs across the Permian sandstone section. Petrophysical results came in above expectations, with 148 metres of measured net pay across the section.
Managing Director Stuart Nicholls called the Lorelle-3 well a watershed moment for the Taroom Trough, saying it demonstrates a northern extension of Shell's primary operating area and validates results from the Tinowon 'Dunk' Sands.
Lorelle-3H is the first horizontal well drilled and tested outside Shell's acreage on the trough's upper western flank. Results so far confirm the quality and materiality of Elixir's substantial Taroom Trough position, Nicholls said.
EXR shares closed 17.5% lower at 9.9 Australian cents, giving the company a market cap of A$224.2 million.
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