In past weeks, we have drilled this well to approximately 15,850 feet, into the Triassic geological layer, but this week, we have been ‘logging’ the well. (Next week, we will continue drilling to our final target drilling depth, at approximately 18,000 feet in the (deep) Permian geological layer.)

Having reached 15,850 feet, after the drill pipe has been taken out, what is left is a 15,850 feet, mud-filled, cylindrical hole in the rock. So, we now carry out the ‘logging’, that is, test and evaluate the well, using electrical wireline well logs. We are running ‘open-hole’ logs, that is, the well has bare rock walls (with no casing).

A ‘sonde’ is lowered down the hole on a ‘wireline’ and various measurements are recorded.

The ‘sonde’ is a cylinder filled with instruments that can sense the electrical, radioactive and sonic properties of the rocks (and their fluids) and the diameter of the wellbore.

The ‘wireline’ is an armored cable with steel cables surrounding conductor cables in insulation. It is reeled out from a drum in the back of the logging truck.

The data from the sonde is transmitted up the cable to instruments in the logging truck and recorded on a long strip of paper.

As I mentioned last week,we are using some state-of-the-art Baker Atlas logging equipment, so we hope to obtain very high-quality data.

One of the logs being run is a ‘natural gamma ray log’. This uses a scintillation counter to measure the natural radioactivity in the rocks along the wellbore. The gamma ray log is plotted with low radioactivity to the left and high radioactivity to the right. Shales (a very common sedimentary rock) are ‘hot’ and kick to the right. Sandstones and limestones, potential reservoir rocks, kick to the left. The amount of shale in a sandstone or limestone can be computed from its radioactivity on a gamma ray log.

Another log being run is the ‘spontaneous potential log’. This measures the electrical current caused by the contact of mud filtrate in the pores of the rock with the natural waters in the rock.

In all we will be taking seven separate measurements and our geologists will certainly be busy with data analysis and evaluation…

I’ll mention that, not only will there be an in-house evaluation of the logging but also an independent analysis by a Houston consultant.

We want to be certain of our conclusions.