Canacol Energy discovers oil in Mono Arana 1 well in Colombia

Canacol Energy has announced that its Mono Arana 1 exploration well has been drilled and cased to a depth of 9,942ft measured depth within the Cretaceous La Luna Formation located in the Middle Magdalena Valley of Colombia.

The Mono Arana 1 well was spud on 23 September 2012, in order to identify the oil potential of both the shallow conventional Tertiary Lisama sandstone reservoir and deeper shale and carbonate reservoirs within the La Luna and Tablazo oil source rocks.

As drilling progressed, about 760ft of La Luna was encountered, along with a good amount of oil and gas traces found throughout the interval.

High pressure was encountered as drilling continued in the deeper prospective zones of the La Luna and Tablazo sections, so penetration ceased and casing was set within the La Luna Formation.

Canacol has a 20% non-operated working interest in the Mono Arana 1 well, which was drilled as part of the VMM2 Exploration and Production contract, while ExxonMobil Exploration Colombia holds 70.1% working interest and Vetra Exploracion y Produccion Colombia holds 9.9% operated working interest.

ExxonMobil Exploration Colombia plans to take the operatorship to continue further operations on Mono Arana 1, subject to approval by Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH).

A combined average gross rate of 1,242 barrels of oil per day during short-term tests flowed, where the two intervals within the tertiary Lisama sandstone were tested.

Canacol Energy president and CEO Charle Gamba said the conventional oil was discovered in the shallow Tertiary Lisama reservoir, and the Cretaceous La Luna formation has the thick, porous and over pressured source rock, according to preliminary results.

"Throughout the drilling of the La Luna section, very encouraging signs of the productivity of the formation were encountered including gas kicks and live oil over the shakers at surface," added Gamba.

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Image: Canacol Energy discovered oil in the Mono Arana 1 well in the Cretaceous La Luna Formation of Middle Magdalena Valley. Photo: courtesy of Phil Catterall.