Heritage Oil discovers major gas field in Iraq’s Kurdistan

Heritage Oil Plc, an independent E&P company, announced a major gas discovery in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Following completion of the deepening and testing of the Miran West-2 well, management estimates that the Miran West structure has P90-P50 gross in-place volumes of gas of between 6.8 and 9.1 TCF with 42–71 million bbl of condensate and 53–75 million bbl of oil.

The Miran West-2 well was initially designed as an appraisal well for the Cretaceous section and was subsequently modified to assess the exploration potential of the deeper formations, eventually being drilled to a total depth of 4,426 m. The well results have confirmed three additional pay zones within Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic formations, in addition to the pay zone identified in the Upper Cretaceous in the Miran West-1 well.

Additionally, well results have established that the Miran Field contains two hydrocarbon systems, with oil in the shallower Upper Cretaceous section and wet gas/condensate within the deeper Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic formations. This has resulted in the previously anticipated prospective oil resources in the Lower Cretaceous, identified on the basis of oil shows in the Miran West-1 well, being proven to be wet gas/condensate.

The test rates were constrained by the capacity of the surface equipment and the well test data indicate that individual test intervals could produce at rates of 40 MMscfd with the well capable of producing at a rate of over 100 MMscfd when it is placed on production. The proven hydrocarbons in the Upper Cretaceous can be accessed commercially on the structure as demonstrated by the 8,000-10,000 bopd potential of the Miran West-1. Furthermore, future drilling techniques will maximise the benefit from the fracture networks in order to achieve optimal production rates.