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Friday, June 27, 2014
Ophir Energy does not seem to enjoy the success offshore West Africa that it does offshore East Africa, at least when it comes to drilling in Gabon. The company just reported that its second well offshore the country drilled this year was a no show in the hydrocarbon department.
Ophir drilled the Okala-1 well on the Mbeli Block using the Vantage Titanium Explorer drillship to a depth of 4,229 meters. The well was targeting Cretaceous sands in the pre-salt section. It encountered a thick section of Aptian salt as prognosed and well developed sandstones in the Gamba and Dentale formation; however, there were no significant hydrocarbon shows in the target reservoirs.
Ophir’s share of the Okala-1 well costs was partially covered by carries from the company’s JV partners.
The Titanium Explorer will now move to Equatorial Guinea to begin a campaign of three exploration and appraisal wells on Block R.
Nick Cooper, CEO, commented: “Okala marks the end of Ophir’s 2014 exploration campaign in Gabon. Initial analysis indicates that the well failed due to either source and/or charge issues at this location. The information gleaned from the 2014 program will now be used to refine our understanding of the sub-salt basin architecture and source distribution and to direct future exploration activity on the blocks. The Titanium Explorer drillship will now move to Equatorial Guinea for a three well program designed to enlarge and derisk the resource base in Block R. At least a further 5 well results are expected from drilling in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania by October.”
Ophir’s previous well offshore Gabon, the Padouk Deep-1 on the Ntsina Block, failed to encounter any significant hydrocarbon shows in its targeted reservoirs either. It did however find thicker than expected, good quality Gamba and Coniquet/Dentale reservoir sands but hydrocarbons were not found to be sufficient for a commercial find.
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