Copied after my comments is a post from Eric.
My comments:
First, this is a very good observation from Eric!
The thought that section 3 was delayed due to hole integrity issues is certainly a possibility as Eric surmised. Another possibility is Zion was ready for this troublesome formation to drill since they had MJ01 learning and that time was taken to test the zone before resuming drilling to TD. This might explain why there was a false start on the license extension, then retraction. Then finally getting the extension within days of reaching TD. Remember, the extension only occurs with a discovery, and days is a fast turn around.
The formation that caused drilling issues in MJ01 had many natural fractures and no hydrocarbons. If MJ02 was able to reach the other side of the fault line where the source was, then maybe that is where the payload is. A complete oil system is from the top down: cap rock, reservoir rock, and source rock. On the MJ01 side of the fault perhaps only the cap and reservoir were present. Or, perhaps on the MJ01 side of the fault there was a source rock but the cap rock is turned up at an angle that allowed the hydrocarbons to escape. The hypothesis is on the MJ02 side all three rock types are present and the cap rock indeed makes a seal. If so, that reservoir is thick and has natural fractures.
In any event, much gratitude to Eric for making this connection in the MJ01 and MJ02 geology and sharing.
Eric if you ever want to talk 1x1 drop me a note KyOil@outlook.com
Eric's Post:
@Gary, I appreciate your encouragement to share this post from several months ago. My apologies as I’ve not felt led to share until this time. Sit back as it is a long one. For Zion supporters, I feel it is from the Lord. I’m just not smart enough to see this on my own.
I’ve worked in heavy civil construction for a long time. We work with soil borings all the time in developing groundwater management plans.
You always hear Zions management speak on the complexity of the geology in Israel. I’m going to walk you through some past PRs and operational updates and paint a picture for you.
First, I was always a big fan of Dustin Guinn. The Lord obviously had other plans for him but thankful for his service to Zion.
From the 11/29/18 MJ 1 PR, Key information learned: Organic rich senonian age source rocks typically present in this part of Israel were NOT encountered. Zion expected these at 1,000 M.
Summary of Key Questions: is the missing senonian age source rock because of a FAULT that cut the well-bore and could be reasonably expected to be encountered in the vicinity of the MJ 1 drill site. To understand this statement, go to yahoo, look up “normal fault”, and view images. Several diagrams will show how the layers of soil shear away at fault locations.
11/02/17 MJ 1 PR: after encountering a MATERIAL SECTION OF SHALE, followed by a return to fractured carbonates, we felt it in the best interest to case and protect the well bore. The PR does not indicate the depth of this material section of shale but does say they were not planning to do another casing run through to total depth. The PR indicates the 7” casing run was installed from 6,224’ to 10,925’. As they were not planning to do another casing run, the shale had to be in the 10,500-10,925 range.
Fast forward to MJ2’s 7/26/21 operational update. Our operational team encountered significant difficulties to keep proper stability with a SHALE FORMATION during recent drilling. From the annual meeting, we know that they were at 13,190’ at the end of zone 3 getting ready to clean and case. We know from their 10/6 Facebook video that they were not able to case zone 3 until 10/6. I’ve always believed the well bore caved in resulting in the huge delay (they lost 4 months) and no PRs for several months as they developed and implemented new paths forward. They were able to finally get zone 3 cased in early October. This makes me believe the shale was near or at the bottom of Zone 3. I believe this shale layer was somewhere in the range of 12,765-13,190’.
As we know, they slid over from MJ 1 and drilled MJ 2 at a deviated angle. Throughout the drilling of MJ 2, the company continuously completed downhill logging to “confirm the geology from MJ 1”. The material section of shale on MJ 1 is the SAME material section of shale on MJ 2.
If you take 13,190’ minus 10,925’ you get 2,265’. This difficult shale layer is 2,265’ lower on MJ 2 than it was on MJ 1. If you look on a fault map, the Dead Sea Fault runs almost exactly through the drill site. At some point in history, the earth layers sheared away. It gets better. Mt. Gilboa elevation is 1,629’ ABOVE sea level. The drill site for MJ 2 is -187 M or -613’ BELOW sea level. Add these together and you get 2,242’.
2,265’ difference for the shale layer and 2,242’ from top of valley to bottom of valley. Almost identical numbers! They hit oil on MJ 1 and increased the target depth for MJ2 by approx. 1,600’. When the valley was created, the source rocks were sheared away along the fault line. They had to drill at an angle to get to the other side of the fault line to get into the source rock that is the reservoir at a much deeper elevation.
There is huge news coming! I have zero doubt!
The Fool God Chose to Love
