Afren Spuds Ogo-1 Offshore Lagos

London listed Afren is on course to spud Ogo-1 in Oil Prospective Lease(OPL) 310 in the Benin Basin, offshore Lagos. OPL 310 is held by Optimum Petroleum, a Nigerian E&P company. Afren is the technical and financing partner. The well is to be drilled by GSF Monitor, a jack up rig owned by Transocean, to a planned depth of 3,536 metres (or 11,600feet). The site is 24km from the Lagos coastline. Logistics will be provided by Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics, LADOL. The well location is squarely in the West African Transform Margin and the drill-bit will be probing targets of Turomanian and Cenomanian age, which are synchronous with the reservoirs targeted in deepwater Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote D’Ivoire.
 The only difference is that Ogo-1, at 100metre water depth, is a shallow water prospect, whereas the discoveries and oil shows in these neighbouring  south Atlantic coastal countries are in deepwater, often in excess of 300metres Water Depth. Still, the Ogo-1 location is considered very prospective  by some of Nigeria’s leading geoscientists. “The prospects look very good for Ogo-1”, says one consultant earth scientist who has worked for Shell and Schlumberger, adding, “a key geological thesis is being tested with this well”.

If Ogo makes a commercial oil discovery, it will unlock a whole new hydrocarbon opportunity outside of the Niger Delta Basin.

There has been a discovery in the vicinity of the Ogo-1 well before. The field is called Aje and it has been appraised with three wells. It’s largely a gas field, whose production has been stalled.