Empyrean Drilling Disappoints As Jade Turns Out To Be No Gem

Although Empyrean had hopes of finding light oil due to gas clouds being present at the well, the Jade prospect ended up being nothing but an extreme disappointment.

Empyrean Energy is the operator of the Jade prospect and holds 100 percent interest in Block 29/11 offshore China, where the prospect is located. If a commercial discovery was made, its partner China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) would have been able to assume a 51 percent participating interest in the development and production phase.

Jade did not start off on the right foot from the start. Drilling suffered several setbacks, and the spudding of the LH 17-2-1 well was delayed several times. Empyrean started spinning the drill bit on the Jade prospect on April 10, 2022, with the COSL-owned NH9 rig.

After backing up its pre-drill interpretation of seismic data related to the Jade prospect well with drilling results confirming the presence of gas clouds, Empyrean was optimistic of Jade becoming a real gem for the company.

The company announced this week that it completed drilling of the LH 17-2-1 well at the Jade prospect and that it reached a final total depth of around 9,350 measured depth in Pre-Tertiary granitic formation. Excellent quality reservoir rocks in the Zhujiang Carbonate target were intersected as prognosed but interpretation from logging while drilling and mud logging equipment indicated no oil pay in the target reservoir.

Current operations are the running of wireline logs, but Empyrean claimed that the wireline logs were not expected to change the initial interpretation of no oil pay seen. Wireline logging tools will now be run following a wiper trip before the start of demobilization operations of the NH 9 rig.

"We are extremely disappointed with the results of the well, particularly after conducting a systematic and comprehensive technical analysis followed by running a safe drilling operation,” Empyrean CEO, Tom Kelly, said.

“We would like to thank CNOOC for all their support, CNOOC EnerTech for managing a successful operation, and COSL for conducting a safe drilling operation. We plan to conduct a thorough analysis of well log data before deciding the next step in the block," Kelly added.

It is worth noting that Jade is the first of the three identified prospects within Block 29/11, which also contains the Topaz and Pearl prospects.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com