ReconAfrica is preparing to begin a 1,000-metre horizontal production test at its Kavango West 1X discovery in Namibia in October, with specialised equipment being shipped from the United States after the well flowed natural gas and potential liquids to the surface.
Chief executive Brian Reinsborough said equipment required for the next phase of work is expected to be on site during September, providing a clearer timetable for a horizontal test that ReconAfrica believes could determine the production potential of the Huttenberg formation.
“We’re going to have all the equipment on site in September and hopefully start testing this October,” Reinsborough said in an interview with Proactive published on 25 August.
The programme follows production testing of the vertical Kavango West 1X well, where ReconAfrica tested about 182 metres of the Huttenberg formation and identified 76 metres of pay.
Reinsborough said natural gas flowed to the surface from the uppermost Huttenberg zone before acid stimulation, which the company views as an encouraging indication of the reservoir’s ability to produce hydrocarbons without initially requiring stimulation.
“The gas flowed to surface. That’s a really good sign. That means the reservoir really did not need any coaxing to produce to surface,” he said.
The results followed earlier testing of the deeper Otavi formation, where ReconAfrica also flowed natural gas to the surface and recorded reservoir pressure build-up that the company interpreted as evidence of reservoir recharge.
ReconAfrica, which operates PEL 73 in partnership with BW Energy and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia, is now moving beyond the vertical testing programme to establish whether a substantially larger section of the Huttenberg reservoir can be exposed to the wellbore.
Reinsborough said the company plans to kick off the horizontal section at about 2,700 metres and drill laterally for up to 1,000 metres.
The strategy is designed to cut across naturally occurring fractures within the reservoir rather than relying solely on the relatively limited reservoir exposure provided by a vertical well.
ReconAfrica’s statistical analysis indicates the horizontal section could encounter between 500 and 7,000 fractures, although the actual number will only become known during drilling.
“We think we can get probably about a thousand metres of section,” Reinsborough said. “The importance of this is that when you go horizontal in a play like this, the concept is to intercept all the fractures perpendicular to the gross structure.”
The horizontal section will also be completed as an open hole, meaning ReconAfrica does not intend to install steel casing or cement across the section being tested. This will leave the reservoir directly exposed to the wellbore.
Reinsborough said the company selected the approach after analogue work and expected it to provide the best opportunity to establish how the reservoir performs.
ReconAfrica is also increasing the capacity of the equipment available for the test, including bringing in a swab truck to help remove fluids from the well and larger pumps capable of injecting greater volumes of acid into the reservoir.
Additional steel is also being shipped for the operation.
“This horizontal well, we’re putting everything to it,” Reinsborough said.
The October timetable provides the next major test of Kavango West after ReconAfrica announced on 17 August that hydrocarbons had flowed to surface from two separate zones within the Huttenberg during preliminary production testing.
The company said at the time that it had recovered natural gas and potential liquids and that the programme would advance to open-hole horizontal testing.
The horizontal programme’s significance extends beyond determining whether Kavango West 1X can produce at commercially meaningful rates.
Reinsborough said the results could help establish whether the geological concept demonstrated at Kavango West can be applied across a wider inventory of prospects within ReconAfrica’s Namibian acreage.
“A lot of attention right now is in the Kavango in Namibia because we think we’re on something great here,” he said.
He said the Kavango West results were important beyond the structure currently being tested because ReconAfrica has another 18 to 20 prospects behind it.
“If this works, we have tremendous, tremendous running room,” Reinsborough said.
ReconAfrica holds a 70% working interest in PEL 73, BW Energy holds 20%, while NAMCOR holds a 10% carried interest.
The company has also previously outlined plans to follow the Kavango West 1X horizontal programme with the Kavango West 2A appraisal well, intended to help establish the reservoir’s lateral extent and connectivity.
The immediate focus, however, is getting the additional equipment into Namibia during September before putting the Huttenberg through what will be its most extensive production test yet in October.
