Petroleum Africa
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Liberia has marked a new offshore oil discovery with the drilling of the Bee Eater-1 well on Block LB-09. The well was spud on January 4 using the Eirik Raude drilling rig. African Petroleum, the operator of the block, said the well was designed to test the Turonian fan by way of a large step out of 9.5 km, west of the company’s original Narina-1 well.
The well was drilled to a total depth of 4,100 meters in a water depth of 1,067 meters and encountered 48 meters of Narina equivalent oil bearing Turonian sandstone out of a 135-meter oil interval.
The well met African Petroleum’s pre-drill expectations. The reservoir permeabilities over the hydrocarbon bearing section of the well were lower than anticipated and the company says that further investigation is underway.
The well was also designed to target the potential of two deeper prospective zones in the Cenomanian and Albian, below the Turonian. Oil bearing sandstones were encountered in both zones. The Bee Eater-1 encountered 14 meters of Albian oil bearing sandstone in the Darter prospect, which extends over 200 sq km. The well also targeted the crestal pinch-out edge of the Egret Cenomanian fan prospect. The well encountered thin oil bearing Cenomanian sandstone of 9 meters at the crest.
While the well is most definitely a success for African Petroleum, the company did experience a problem during drilling with the rig. The well took 48 days to drill, with 21 of those days being downtime due to a malfunctioning BOP. Consequently the company will not be drilling its second well in its back-to-back two-well program. African Petroleum said that given the sizable downtime African Petroleum saw with the rig and the previous issues surrounding the BOP, it has decided to forgo moving forward on the second well at this time. The company is however in discussions to find an alternative drilling rig.
Karl Thompson, CEO of the company said "after a substantial 9.5 km step out, the success at the Bee Eater-1 indicates that the Turonian oil play discovered in Narina-1 extends over a very large area. Finding oil so far down dip on the Darter Albian structure, confirms the significant potential of the Albian play. Discovering oil in our first test of the Cenomanian fan system is also very encouraging for the Egret Cenomanian prospect and the additional Cenomanian prospects identified in LB-09. We are disappointed not to be drilling the second well immediately following on from the Bee Eater-1 and are currently sourcing another drilling rig."
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