For all the "experts" suggesting that there is no oil reservoir in the San Juan/Stann Creek basin, I will repost my research from May 2011, which speaks for itself. The Monkey River is drilled just south and slightly east our San Juan wells. The salt water may actually be pushing the oil into onshore traps, such as the area we are drilling based on the magnetic anomoly we observed in this location. We are drilling the sweet spot that this crew just missed.
A Monkey River well was drilled offshore in 2007 by Island Oil and Gas...I think they just missed, but the geology looks good.....
"The Little Monkey Cay #1 well was spudded on January 25th, 2007, and reached a total drilled depth of 3111 feet below driller's reference on 9 April, 2007. The well was plugged and abandoned as a dry hole on April 13, 2007. The majority of the well was cored so lithologic knowledge is good. Rocks encountered at the base of the well are fractured and vuggy, dark, crystalline dolomites of Early Cretaceous II (Albian) to Late Cretaceous 1 age (Cenomanian) (Figure 3). The well is located in tract 12 offshore from the Toledo District of Belize and inshore the barrier reef (Figure 1). The well data sheets summarize other information relevant to the well.
The well was operated by Island Oil, Belize, LLC, which carried all costs.
Dolomites encountered in the lower portion of the well contained many occurrences of residual oil in what was once probably a very rich reservoir in these very porous and permeable rocks. However, the Toledo shales were lacking and any inter-formational anhydrites were also not encountered, therefore, all but the heaviest fractions of oil appear to have migrated out of this structure, probably along the numerous faults and fractures encountered during drilling.
The jack-up rig stood in 83'9" of water. The well is located in Block 12 offshore in the southern district of Belize, Central America. The well data sheets summarize other information.
The well is somewhat atypical in that the entire well was cored except for the upper 238' and thus the knowledge of the lithologies encountered in the well is far better known than in other situations. Lost circulation was a problem throughout large sections of the well though this did not affect the ability to identify lithologies encountered while drilling due to good core recovery.
At the final depth, obligations between government and partners were met and the parties agreed to stop drilling further.
No insurmountable difficulties were encountered during drilling. From spud to abandonment, the average ROP was 50-60' per day. When the rig and ancillary operations were running well it was possible to achieve a ROP of approximately 120' per day. However, given the complex nature of the coring operation and the new rig/platform system, numerous equipment breakdowns resulted in many days of equipment repair. Additionally, the fractured nature of the lower rock resulted in numerous core blockages and lost circulation caused progress to be slower than desired.
The dark, fractured, vuggy, crystalline dolomites and limestones in the lower half of the well are ascribed to the Early Cretaceous Coban Formation with the top picked at the top of the limestone unit at 2600 ft. Biostratigraphic results presented later argue for a mostly shallow to very shallow marine setting with the darker units representing algal mat derived organic matter. This unit as well as the overlying carbonates are, in places, heavily fractured and faulted (several slickenslides). No organic geochemistry results are available from these lowermost carbonates although they contained fairly frequent traces of asphaltic/bitumen like hydrocarbon residues indicating the former status of this formation as a resevoir rock - with drainage probably occuring related to the faulting and fracturing.
The top of the Late Cretaceous Campur Formation is picked at ca. 1500 ft to coincide with the top of the dark, fractured and vuggy dolomites in this section. No thin section data is available for this unit but the dark color, and abundant pyrite argue for a shallow marine setting. "
It's nice vuggy dolomite and it's thousands of feet to bedrock. Pretty good spot. Apparently the petroleum just needs to be unlocked, hence Schlumberger will perf and acidize the San Juan field, and hence the pr suggestion that the field, once delineated will be drilled from a central point and laterally exploited. Time will tell Oiljob
The map shared yesterday, confirms hydrocarbons in all the southern wells, it has simply escaped or migrated from the locations drilled. One or two thousand feet, a small fault, a small capping layer of anhydrite, makes all the difference in the world.
