Sacgasco discovers gas at Dempsey project in California, US

Australian energy company Sacgasco has discovered gas in a well at its Dempsey project in California, US, after completing the drilling of the field-appraisal stage.

Drilling of the company’s Dempsey 1-15 well confirmed four zones of interpreted gas saturated sandstones between 1,000m and 1,560m through wireline and mud logs, with a net gas pay of 30ft-50ft.

It also revealed that, based on log correlations and 3D seismic, the gas filled sands were not previously identified in this fault block of the field.

Sacgasco managing director Gary Jeffery commented: “Our focus now turns to drilling the more than five underlying targets. The local team, which has drilled many of the wells in the immediate area, estimate that there is sufficient producible gas in the discovered zones at field production levels to provide cash flow to more than pay for the well.

“This is consistent with our pre-drilling prognosis, and is based on analogue well and production data.”

These zones are expected to be cased for future testing and production.

Nine 5in / 8in casing has been run to a depth of about 1,760m and is currently being cemented in place in order to undertake further drilling into more than five remaining prospective underlying sandstone reservoir targets.

Sacgasco is planning to take up the next wireline logging run once the proposed total drilling depth of about 3,200m is reached.

The Dempsey gas project is owned by Sacgasco with a 50% interest, while Empyrean Energy, Pancontinental Oil and Gas and Xstate Resources own 30%, 10% and 10% stakes respectively.