The Australian oil and gas company has completed the necessary construction at the Welchau-1 drill site and will start drilling at the Welchau-1 well, using the RED E202 drilling rig, under its existing rig services contract with RED Drilling and Services
ADX Energy to spud Welchau-1 well in this week. (Credit: WORKSITE Ltd. on Unsplash)
Australian oil and gas company ADX Energy has unveiled its plans to start drilling operations at the Welchau gas exploration project, in the ADX-AT-II licence in Upper Austria.
ADX has completed the well site construction at the Welchau-1 drill site and will start drilling at the Welchau-1 well, under its existing rig services contract with RED Drilling and Services.
The oil and gas company has contracted the necessary services and purchased all the long lead items required to drill the Welchau- 1 well, using the RED E202 drilling rig.
The RED E202 drilling rig, which has been pre-approved for the drilling at Welchau-1, can be mobilised to the well site on 14 February, after completing work in Upper Austria.
The drilling rig needs to travel around 112km from the current drill site to reach the Welchau-1 drilling location within the ADX-AT-II licence in Upper Austria.
The rig move and rig assembly would require around six days, with an expected well spud date of 20 February 2024, and the drilling programme is anticipated to take around 39 days.
ADX Energy, in its statement, said: “The Welchau gas prospect has exceptional gas resource potential, located in the heart of Europe at a relatively shallow drill depth and proximal to gas pipelines. ADX estimates that Welchau has the best technical Prospective Resources of 807 BCFE (134 MMBOE).
“Welchau is targeting the same reservoirs as the nearby Molln-1 well, which tested condensate-rich, pipeline-quality gas at a rate of 4MMSCFPD in 1989.
“Prospective Resources are those estimated quantities of petroleum that may potentially be recovered by the application of a future development project(s) related to undiscovered accumulations.”
ADX previously used the RED E202 drilling rig to drill the company’s Anshof-3 and Anshof-2 exploration wells in Austria, drilled as per schedule and budget, without any safety incidents.
Similar to the Anshof-2 and Anshof-3 wells, the drilling services and other contracted services will be exclusively provided by highly trained local staff from Upper Austria, said the company.
ADX has signed an agreement with a subsidiary MCF Energy (MCF) to fund 50% of Welchau-1 well costs up to €5.1m to earn a 25% interest in the Welchau Investment Area.
Upon completion of MCF’s funding, ADX will hold a 75% interest in the Welchau Investment Area and a 100% in the remaining ADX-AT-II license, excluding the Anshof Discovery Area.