Sacgasco has secured drilling permit from the California division of oil, gas and geothermal resources (DOGGR) for exploratory well Borba 1-7 in the Sacramento basin, onshore California, US.
The Australia-based energy company has secured approval to drill to basement projected at 9,100 feet (2,800m).
Sacgasco is the operator of the Borba area of mutual interest (Borba AMI) with 46% stake while Empyrean Energy and Xstate Resources have 30% and 24% interest respectively.
Drilling of the well, which is a part of the Anzus Project, is expected to begin in late January to early February.
The company said that the exploratory well will be drilled vertically to test 16 stacked seismic anomalies in the interval from 2,300 feet (700m) to 9,100 feet (2,800m) depth. The potential interval covers around 6,900 feet (2,100m).
Sacgasco’s managing director Gary Jeffery said: “Sacgasco is excited about drilling the Borba 1-7 well. It is worth observing the market interest created by the recent successful West Erregulla gas well in the Perth Basin.
“This well was drilled in similar circumstances in an under explored part of the producing gas basin.
“A key similarity is that Borba 1-7 well is expected to have high pressures, which when combined with interpreted reasonable reservoirs will result in high gas flow rates.
“Importantly the Borba prospect is shallower, with a total well depth of less than 3,000 metres compared to over 5,000 metres in the Perth Basin. Borba is also close to gas infrastructure and industry support centres.”
Sacgasco has stated that the drilling pad preparations will start as weather permits.
NorCal Construction, a local contractor, will construct the pad which is likely to take 10-14 days.
Sacgasco received local administrative approval in September
On 26 September, Sacgasco had received local administrative approval from Glenn County for the Borba 1-7 well.
In May 2018, Sacgasco had announced the commercial gas flow from the Dempsey 1-15 well in the Northern Sacramento gas basin as part of the Dempsey gas project in California.
The company, which is the operator of the Dempsey gas project with a 50% stake, had said that flow-testing of the well from the field level Kione Zone had yielded a commercial gas flow rate of 1 million cubic feet of gas.
