Buccaneer Energy Limited has identified a new gas zone at the Cosmopolitan well drilled by the jack-up rig Endeavour-Spirit of Independence off Stariski Creek and north of Anchor Point in lower Cook Inlet. The well tested 16 million cubic feet daily of natural gas.

In an update released this week, Buccaneer said an absolute open flow potential four-point test on a second gas zone resulted in 16 million cubic-feet per day. The zone has 60 feet of perforations in the 4,300-foot measured depth sand and produced gas at a maximum tested rate of 7.3 million cubic-feet per day. The first gas zone tested was at 5,500 feet and yielded a maximum rate of 7.2 million cubic-feet per day with an absolute open flow potential of 9.4 million cubic-feet per day.

“The Cosmo No. 1 test results are seen by the company to be extremely positive,” Buccaneer said in a press release.

Buccaneer is considering several development options using those zones that could initially produce a combined gas rate of 8 to 10 million cubic-feet per day. Only the two gas zones in the Tyonek Formation have been tested, but there are additional shallow gas zones within the formation that might be tested in future well appraisals, the press release said. 

Buccaneer will get a third-party reserve estimate and finalize its field development plans and cost estimates. The Cosmo well will be suspended as a future productive well. Once this work is done, the Endeavour jack-up rig will be moved north to the Southern Cross Unit.