EQ. GUINEA
DEVON ENERGY, THE LARGE American Independent, is embarking on a three-well programme to evaluate the Venus oil discovery in Offshore Block P in Equatorial Guinea. The Crosco semi-submersible rig “Zagreb 1 “is being deployed to drill three locations, to test some of the identified prospects in the vicinity of the Venus discovery. Devon’s geoscientists have identified at least three play types along the western limit of the block, one at Tertiary level and two in the Cretaceous. From north to south of the block, Devon has defined such playtypes as Luna (channel complex overlying the Upper Cretaceous series), Estrella, Marte, Jupiter and Sol (Tertiary valley fill). The prospects, which are located in the southern portion of the block, have similarities to Upper Cretaceous structures in former Block G. Block P has an area of 1.619 sq km and covers grid blocks H- 17, 1-17, H- 18 and 1-18 in the Rio Muni Basin. The acreage lies mainly on the shelf, between the coastline to the east, and Block H (Atlas) plus Block L (Chevron) to the west. Devon made the Venus oil discovery in September 2005. The P-2 wildcat encountered about 45m of net oil pay in Upper Cretaceous (Campanian?) sands. The well was spudded in August 2005 with the semi-submersible Global Santa Fe rig Aleutian Key, but ended at a depth of about 2,160m. A sidetrack kicked off and reached a final depth of about 2,270m. Well P2ST encountered 35m of net oil pay downdip, but no tests were carried out. Devon says that the reservoir encountered in Venus-I is composed of multiple channel sands, similar in type to the sands in Zafiro. The operator is carrying out detailed seismic interpretation and AVO analysis. If the appraisals work, the accumulation could be brought on-stream by 2008. Well P-2 is located in the southwestern part of the acreage, about 2km south of wildcat P-1 and 30km NW of Bata in 253m of water depth. Early in October 2004, Devon had plugged and abandoned its first well in Block, wildcat P-1 on the Jupiter prospect. That well was also drilled with the semi-submersible GSF “Aleutian Key”. The company assumed that no oil show was encountered in that exploration programme. P-I is sited in 219m of water, some 60km north- northeast of the Ebano field and 30km northwest of Bata in the southwestern portion of the tract. The interests in the licence are shared between operator Devon with 38.4% and Petronas 31%, DNO 5% and Atlas Petroleum 5.6%. State hydrocarbon company GEPetrol is 20% carried.
