An approval hearing date for four planned helium development wells at Blue Star Helium’s Galactica and Pegasus prospects has been set for Wednesday (September 14) by The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
The quartet (State 09, 16, 35 and 36), in Las Animas County, are the first in the planned development of the helium discoveries at the sites, which returned concentrations of up to 3.14%.
The company plans to submit final permits to drill following location approval at the hearing.
The planned development is likely to include drilling of an early weel for additional pressure and flow analysis, with the three further wells being targeted for completion closer to the commissioning of the processing facility.
This practice allows for limited time between drilling and exposing the helium reservoir and shutting the well in prior to tie-in to the production facility.
Blue Star Helium has also provided a Sammons 315310C well drilling update, one of four approved helium wells, which is being drilled by joint venture partner and AMI operator, Vecta Oil & Gas.
As previously reported, Vecta advised that casing has been set at 1,270 feet in the shale that separates the upper and lower Lyons sands.
This allows the upper Lyons to be preserved for future completion after showing high and increasing flow rates during testing, while allowing the lower Lyons to be tested in isolation for accurate pressure, flow and compositional analysis of the lower sand.
Cementing operations were undertaken during the short Labor Day week with the cement bond log at the end of operations showing insufficient cement coverage for around 730 feet to surface. Given the well is expected to encounter gas in the lower Lyons sand, additional cement has been installed to provide sufficient bonding in the shallow section of the well.
At this stage the plan is to run the cement bond log to confirm sufficient cmenet coverage and then to drill out any remnant cement in casing, and drill into the lower Lyons sand.
Once in the lower Lyons, the plan is to drill the first 20 feet of sand for initial flow testing of the well for pressure and rate analysis, and to collect gas samples to determine composition.
Blue Star has a 50% non-operated interest with Prospero Oil and Gas (25% non-operated), and Vecta Oil & Gas (25%).
Scott Fenoglio was appionted Chief Financial Officer last week, following Blue Star Helium reporting an after-tax loss of $2,707,681 (2021: loss of $1,131,844) in the half year to June 30.
