Drilling has commenced on the Hibiscus Updip prospect on the Dussafu Marin Permit, offshore Gabon. This exploration well is being drilled with the Borr Norve jackup drilling rig, and is the first well in an intensive six well well campaign planned on Dussafu during 2019b and 2020. The operator is BW Energy.
The Hibiscus Updip well (DHIBM-1) is located about 56 km offshore Gabon in 116m water depth. The well is planned as a vertical well to test the highly productive Gamba and Dentale reservoirs.
The DHIBM-1 well is also located approximately 1.5 km southwest of the Hibiscus well (HIBM-1) drilled by Arco in 1991 based on two dimensional (2D) seismic data, and which found good quality Gamba reservoir with live oil shows. The new well is positioned to intersect the Gamba at what is believed, based on three dimensional (3D) seismic data acquired by Panoro in 2013, to be an updip position from the HIBM-1 well.
Following the DHIBM-1 well, the rig will move on to drill four consecutive horizontal production wells at the Tortue field, followed by an additional exploration well in 2020.
The location of the 2020 exploration well will be based on 3D seismic data that is being currently re-processed with the latest techniques. Based on the results of the processing and exploration wells, a further two additional exploration wells may be drilled once the initial six well campaign has been completed.
