Petroleum Africa
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Thursday, September 5, 2013
Oryx Petroleum Corp. Ltd. made a new discovery off the coast of the Republic of Congo (ROC) with the drilling of its E-1 exploration well. The well was targeting the Elephant (formerly Xiang) prospect in the Haute Mer A license area and discovered both oil and natural gas.
The well was drilled using the Jasper Explorer drillship to a total depth of 2,497 meters. Following the completion of drilling, preliminary logging operations were conducted and the data collected from the logging operations and throughout drilling were analyzed. The E-1 well was targeting a deeper turbiditic Tertiary play similar to the play being exploited in fields adjacent to the Haute Mer A license area and other contiguous blocks. Based on the preliminary data from the E-1 well, 30 meters of gross interval (20.3 meters net) of crude oil and 102 meters of gross interval (58.8 meters net) of natural gas were encountered in the N5 interval and 16 meters of gross interval (9.2 meters net) of crude oil were encountered in the N3 interval.
The company will test the Elephant discovery in early 2014 as part of its multi-well drilling and testing program in the Haute Mer A license area.
The company also reported that it spud the H-1 well targeting the Horse prospect. Using the Jasper Explorer once again, the well will be drilled to a total depth of 5,462 meters in 1,038 meters of water in the western portion of the license area. Primary targets are the Tertiary N3 reservoir, a turbiditic play, and the deeper Cretaceous reservoir, an Albian age carbonate play. Oryx Petroleum expects the well will reach total depth in late 2013.
If the H-1 well is successful, the Jasper Explorer will first test the H-1 well prior to testing the Elephant discovery. Details of the testing program are currently being finalized together with the operator. Subject to a successful test, the operator intends to drill the first appraisal well in the license area on the Elephant discovery. The appraisal well will likely test the potential outer extension of the discovered N5 sands while also probing similar channel sands in the N5 interval.
Oryx Petroleum has a 20% participating and working interest in the Haute Mer A license area.
Commenting today, Henry Legarre, Oryx Petroleum’s COO, stated: “We are very pleased with the Elephant discovery as it represents an important milestone in the building of our West African business. Overall the results are consistent with expectations. Reservoir quality, crude quality and viscosity appear to be better than originally anticipated while the areal extent of the reservoir appears to be slightly smaller than expected. We look forward to working with our partners to test and potentially appraise the Elephant discovery. Although subject to testing, the discovery gives us confidence that there is further upside potential and opportunity to expand the prospect inventory in the license area.”
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