Canadian gas
9 Dec 2004
Shell Canada has made a major natural gas discovery on a previously untested structure located 30 kilometres southwest of Rocky Mountain House in central Alberta.
The exploration well, Shell Tay River Ricinus was drilled on a previously untested Leduc reef feature ajacent to the nearby Ricinus West field. It was drilled to a depth of 5100 metres and encountered approximately 140 metres of net pay. Test data indicates that the well will be capable of a restricted flow rate of 30 million cubic feet per day through existing 3.5 inch tubing.
Based on seismic evaluation, pressure and well data, Shell estimates that this new feature could contain in the range of 500 to 800 billion cubic feet of original raw gas in place. The raw gas contains approximately 60 per cent methane and 35 per cent hydrogen sulphide. Additional drilling and production information will be required to confirm the amount of gas in place and recovery factors.
'This is one of the largest gas discoveries in Western Canada in recent years and related economic benefits will be important to both Shell and the Province of Alberta,' said Ian Kilgour, Senior Vice President of Exploration and Production, Shell Canada.
The discovery well is in the vicinity of existing sour gas processing facilities with capacity to handle incremental volumes, and is expected to be tied-in and producing by mid-2005. Further delineation drilling is also planned during 2005.
