Petroleum Africa
Find us on: 
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
HRT’s first exploration well offshore Namibia, the Wingat-1 2212/07/1 well, found oil. The well, spud on March 25, was drilled in water depths of around 1,005 meters and reached a final depth of 5,000 meters. While the well encountered oil they were not in commercial volumes. The Wingat-1 was drilled in 68 days by the semi-submersible Transocean Marianas and within the budget.
The main objective of the well was to test the resource potential of the Albian age carbonate platform, which was penetrated on targeted depth, but its reservoir quality is much less developed than originally expected.
The Wingat well was initially planned to be drilled to a total depth (TD) of 4,127 meters, but because of the potential to drill deeper to test the presence of turbidite reservoirs and the opportunity to penetrate and to sample the main source rock, the partners decided to go deeper, to a final TD of 5,000 meters. This decision was also supported by the increasing concentrations of hydrocarbon shows present in the well below the depth of 1,500 meters.
The information obtained, coupled with the results of preliminary studies of all data collected from the well, allowed the Brazilian company to identify two well-developed source rocks, which are rich in organic carbon and both within the oil-generating window. Also, the well encountered several thin-bedded-sandy reservoirs that are saturated by oil.
HRT collected four samples of the oil, each of 450cc, and the analysis of these samples indicated the presence of light oil, 38˚ to 42˚ API, with minimal contamination. No water-bearing zones were identified in the drilled section. The well is currently in the process of being plugged and abandoned.
HRT believes that the fact that the source rock is in the oil window and generating liquid hydrocarbons of excellent quality confirms the source potential of the basin. As such, the results of Wingat-1 will provide important information that will help in calibrating and guiding HRT’s next exploration steps in the Walvis Basin. These source rocks present in the well can charge reservoir intervals of other prospects identified in the license, including the Murombe Prospect which is scheduled to be drilled next.
The Murombe well will be drilled about 15 km westward of Wingat-1 and will test a Cretaceous basin-floor fan and its spud-in is expected to happen later in May. This well will be the second of a firm, three- well drilling campaign that HRT is currently running in Namibia.
We are pleased with Wingat-1 overall results. The confirmation of the presence of high quality source rocks that are clearly in the oil-generation window, coupled with the IFA formation testing, which recovered light oil from the reservoirs we penetrated, were major achievements obtained by this well. The find and recovery of the first oil offshore Namibia make us feel confident that we will achieve our goals that were set for our drilling plans in the country. Our efforts will now be to proceed to our second exploration location in this basin – the Murombe-1 well, which will target turbidite reservoirs located above and beneath these source rocks within the same PEL,” highlighted Milton Romeu Franke, the CEO of HRT.
" alt="First LNG Realized at the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Project">
" alt="United Energy Acquires Western Desert Producer APEX">
" alt="Baker Hughes Announces Major Gas Technology Orders for Venture Global LNG">
" alt="ReconAfrica: Naingopo Results Demonstrate a Working Petroleum System">
" alt="Tullow Highlights 2025 Operational Plans in Ghana">
" alt="TotalEnergies to Supply 1.5 TWh to STMicroelectronics in France Over 15 years">
" alt="Rockhopper Reaches Final Settlement with United on Egypt’s Abu Sennan Concession">
" alt="Oil & Gas Crucial for African Growth: AEC Calls for Industry Support to Defend African Market">
