Lightning strikes oil for Winchester Energy in Texas

US-focused Winchester Energy (ASX: WEL) has encountered “good to strong” oil and gas shows while drilling its latest Arledge 16#2 well at the Lightning prospect in Texas’ Permian Basin.

The onshore oil producer, which spudded the well less than a week ago, today reported “good” oil and gas shows over a 30-feet gross interval in the Lower Cisco sand from 5,020ft to 5,050ft.

Oil shows with “good fluorescence and cut”, along with minor gas, were encountered over another 40ft gross interval in this lower sand, from 5,080ft to 5,120ft.

The news follows yesterday’s announcement that the company had encountered “good to strong” oil and gas shows in the Upper Cisco sand over a 61ft gross interval.

The top upper sands were encountered 20ft higher than prognosis, with the oil and gas shows observed from 4,750ft to 4,811ft.

Drilling has now reached a total depth of 5,500ft and the well is currently being prepared for wireline logging to evaluate the full significance of the combined 131ft gross interval of Cisco sand.

If the wireline logs confirm potential commercial oil pay in the well, Winchester said casing will be run to total depth and the drill rig will be released.

The well will then be prepared for completion and production testing.

According to Winchester, Arledge 16#2 was designed to essentially “twin” the Arledge 16#1 well drilled in 1982.

At the time of drilling, the initial well had encountered 300ft of laminated Cisco sands in two separate 150ft thick upper and lower sections, with wireline logs and oil shows revealing potential gross oil pay in each.

The new Arledge 16#2 well was therefore targeting 300ft of untested potential gross oil pay, with 150ft each in the upper and lower Cisco lobes.

The Cisco sands are also a proven producer in the area, particularly in the Bast field about 1 mile (1.6km) to the northeast.

According to Winchester, the Cisco sands have historically produced a total of 5 million barrels of oil and 2.25 billion cubic feet of gas.

The company has a 100% interest in the Lightning prospect, located within its Arledge oil lease in Texas.

It has firmed up gross prospective resources for the Lightning prospect of 1.95 million barrels of oil (on a P50 best estimate basis), with a high estimate (P10) of 6.392MMbo and a low estimate of 0.602MMbo.

Winchester has a busy drilling schedule over the next 12 months, with Lightning being just one of the prospects.

The next wells lined up for drilling are the White Hat 20#4 and White Hat 20#5 wells at the company’s adjacent White Hat Ranch lease.