been running a little, and hartleys did do a report on them rating it at .19
currently at .038
WHL Energy Ltd Seychelles Exploration Blocks Executive Summary Independent Experts Report
February 2011
Isis Petroleum Consultants Pty Ltd
Perth, Western Australia
WHL
.Executive Summary
WHL Seychelles blocks are in a frontier setting and contain a variety of prospective plays including:
Triassic to Early Jurassic Karroo Group equivalent non-marine sands
Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous sands and oolitic limestone
Middle Cretaceous to Paleocene shelf and turbidite sands
Early Tertiary carbonate plays (reefal build ups and oolitic shoals)
Isis concludes there is good evidence of a working petroleum systems in the area of the WHL blocks. The evidence includes surface seeps, tar occurrences observed on Seychelles islands and well data. In addition, analogue studies from offset basin data show potential for the presence of good quality, mature source rocks and prospective reservoirs
Isis has validated the presence of some of the key existing leads using the seismic data provided by WHL together with other publicly available data
The larger structures identified in the blocks have the potential to contain multi Tcf / multi 100 MMbbl range hydrocarbon accumulations
Isis has delineated new leads which warrant further evaluation. A number of previously existing leads have however been downgraded from the review of the available data
The critical risks in the WHL blocks are:
Trap definition due to overall sparse seismic line spacing and (in places) poor seismic data quality, especially for the deeper Karroo play
Sealdue to an overlying porous Tertiary carbonate section and to the reliance of some traps on fault seal or a stratigraphic pinchout geometry
Charge timing from the Karroo source rocks which may predate in some cases the trap formation for some of the leads
Maastrichtian to Paleocene volcanics in the area (basalts & tuffs) complicate the evaluation due to their dampening of the underlying seismic data quality and also because the volcanics tend to have a bright seismic response which can be mistaken for a prospective hydrocarbon bearing reservoir
The new Fugro seismic will provide valuable data over the identified leads
Additional 2D or 3D seismic data may be required to mature high-graded leads into a drillable status
Isis will undertake a volumetric and risk assessment of the leads identified in this stage of the project. The volumetric evaluation will be part of Phase 2 of the project
imho a good report
A multitude of geological data suggests that the petroleum system is in place. Rich, voluminous source rocks, likely migration paths, good reservoir rocks and huge traps all make the Seychelles offshore basins a tempting target for companies ready to explore a frontier province.
In 1980-81 Amoco decided to test the theory that continental crust extends below the Seychelles Plateau by drilling three wells:
Reith Bank-1 (no seal present at top Karoo),
Owen Bank-1 (did not reach the objective)
and Seagull Shoals-1 (no depth closure identified in the post well mapping).
These wells were unfortunately spatially clustered together, just testing the extreme western corner of the platform area.
The Reith Bank-1 well drilled over 1900 m of non-marine intercalated sandstones and mudstones of inferred upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic age, this succession pertaining
to the Karoo Supergroup. The drilling of such considerable thicknesses of sedimentary rocks proved beyond doubt
that the Seychelles Plateau is underpinned by continental crust.
The Owen Bank-1 well penetrated a similar thickness of Cretaceous and Middle Jurassic mudstones and sandstones.
Finally, Seagull Shoals-1 drilled about 300 m of Karoo age sediments. Sands encountered at 2,734 - 2,737 m RT in this well have good visual porosity due to secondary porosity development via quartz and feldspar dissolution.
All wells failed to reach crystalline basement, and they did not encounter commercial quantities of oil. However, sidewall cores taken within the Karroo section at Reith Bank-1 yielded streaming cut fluorescence and bleeding beads of oil over a significant depth interval in excess of 630 m. A production test within the Karroo flowed water at a rate of 1,200 bbls per day with 0.7 ppm of benzene indicating the likely presence of hydrocarbons close by. The
healthy flow rate suggests reasonable permeability.
A fourth well, Constant Bank-1 (1995) was drilled to the
southeast by Enterprise but was TD after drilling 900 m of volcanics at a time when oil dipped to USD 9.0 a barrel.
A similar (400 m thick) layer of basalt, interpreted to be of the same age (Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary), was drilled in the Owen Bank-1 well. Volcanics of this age also occur in Seagull Shoals-1, but are significantly thinner. Subsequent VSP work suggests that the volcanics in Constant Bank-1 were ~1270 m thick and that sediments akin to those found in the Amoco wells also exist in the East.
Approximately 24,000 kilometres of 2D seismic data was acquired over the Seychelles Plateau between 1980 and 1996. During this period of active exploration a number of airborne aeromagnetic surveys, marine gravity surveys, marine sniffer geochemical surveys and passive airborne UV fluorescence were also acquired.
Unfortunately, in the case of the seismic, there is no digital seismic database of migrated seismic records. Problems with archive field tapes and observer logs make reprocessing a major undertaking.
In many cases only old paper sections are available for scanning.
Equally frustrating is the fact that the majority of the acquisition is of 80�s vintage and data was acquired with short cables and low volume sources in almost all cases. Consequently, much of the existing seismic data is considered to be acquisition constrained.
There is no question that modern seismic data is required