Purple Angel Confirms Gas
In recent years, Colombia has become Latin America’s fourth-biggest oil producer, behind Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil, and it is now following that with a number of large gas discoveries. The state-owned oil company Ecopetrol reported in early March 2017 that its deepwater Purple Angel-1 well, on the Purple Angel Block, has found gas, with registered gas pay intervals totaling an estimated 21-34m thickness. The well is situated about 50 km offshore in water depths of 1,822m, about 200 km south-west of Cartagena.
Anadarko spudded the Purple Angel-1 appraisal well on November 24, 2016, and the Dolphin Drilling vessel Bolette Dolphin reached a TD of 4,795m before moving offsite in late February 2017. Purple Angel-1 is located 4.7 km from the Kronos-1 discovery and confirms the extension of the reservoir and the potential of this new hydrocarbon province. Ecopetrol said that based on data from the two wells, the Kronos field is estimated to have a gas column of at least 520m. The original PTD was about 4,800m with Pliocene and Miocene targets. Kronos-1, in the Fuerte Sur Block, was drilled in 2015 and found evidence of natural gas, with 39-70m (net) of natural gas pay in the upper objective, though at the time it was deemed uncommercial.
Anadarko operates the Purple Angel Block and adjacent Fuerte Norte and Fuerte Sur blocks with 50%. Ecopetrol holds the remaining 50%. This well is part of a US$ 650 million exploration campaign by Ecopetrol which includes drilling five wells in Colombian Caribbean water.
