Helium One makes solid progress at Tai-3 well

(Sharecast News) - Tanzania-focussed helium explorer Helium One Global updated the market on its Tai-3 operations on Wednesday, highlighting significant progress and plans. The AIM-traded company achieved a notable milestone by retrieving the drill string from the Tai-3 well.

That involved isolating and repositioning various components of the iron roughneck, addressing rig problems, and ensuring the safe retrieval of the drill pipe and bottom hole assembly, including the heavy-weight drill pipe and drill collars.

Notably, the hole condition remained favourable, allowing Helium One to transition smoothly into wireline operations immediately after the drill string removal.

The move would avoid reliance on the rig's hydraulics and the iron roughneck.

During the initial logging run, logging tools encountered washouts and ledges in the Lower Karoo formation, limiting the depth to 1,430 metres measured depth (MD) rather than the target depth of 1,448 metres MD.

Helium One said it was now gearing up to initiate a downhole sampling programme using a specialised Baker Hughes reservoir characterisation instrument.

The instrument was designed to extract gas samples from identified zones of interest under reservoir conditions.

Additionally, the company said it could conduct on-site analysis using field pressure-volume-temperature analysis to determine the gas composition, pending the success of the sampling.

While the firm was determining the timelines required for a full rig repair, its current priority was to complete the wireline logging and obtain downhole samples.

The samples would be evaluated on-site to make informed decisions regarding Helium One's future operational programme.

"The team at site have done an outstanding job working innovatively and proactively to ensure we were able to safely pull the drill string out of the hole," said chief executive officer Lorna Blaisse.

"This surpassed all expectations, and we're delighted to now be in the position of having commenced wireline operations and planning downhole sampling to fully evaluate the Tai-3 well.

"Whilst the setback with the rig is incredibly frustrating, we have overcome a number of operational hurdles and remain focussed and confident that when the rig is back up and running, we will be in a stronger position for future wells."

At 1420 GMT, shares in Helium One Global were up 6.04% at 5.36p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.