All articles in the Oil patch Sub-Sahara Section:

The TGS-Petrodata joint venture has received the approval of the Nigerian authorities to commence a $55Million three-dimensional (3D) ‘carpet’, multi-client seismic survey in the deepwater Niger Delta.

It’s an ambitious project which has benefitted from industry prefunding.

Chevron’s pre-funding of the project with $28Million is a bet on Nigeria’s deepwater future, say spokesmen for TGS and Petrodata.

Some other international operators have indicated interest in acquiring the data after production, but they will not get the benefit of the discount that Chevron is getting for pre-funding.

The first and second phases of the data acquisition are 5,500 square kilometres, each in areal size. China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL), a majority owned subsidiary of Chinese state-owned company China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Group, will provide a Chinese made acquisition vessel. “The proposed acquisition will have significant offset, with 10kilometre long streamers”., the operators’ spokespersons say.

By Maxwell Xhumale, in Windhoek

The multi-well campaign continues…First oil unlikely in a hurry

UK based major Shell, has announced the conclusion of safe and successful operations to drill a further exploration well – Jonker-1X – in Namibia’s deepwater Orange Basin.

The company’s third consecutive wildcat in PEL 0039 license was drilled to a total depth of 6,168metres in water depth of 2,210metres.

Shell is quite cautious in stating the hydrocarbon encounter: “Drilling operations established the presence of a reservoir with light oil”.

The Deepsea Bollsta semi-submersible rig will remain in PEL 0039 to drill further wells as part of the ongoing exploration and appraisal campaign.

But while clearly signaling its encouragement “by a further deep-water discovery, our third in Namibia”, a sentence like “Drilling operations established the presence of a reservoir with light oil”, is a euphemism for “don’t get too excited”.

Shell cautions that “further appraisal activities with dynamic data gathering are required to characterize the variability of rock properties and to determine the size and recoverable potential of the discovery”.

The company contends in its press release: “Frontier exploration requires a multi-phase process to establish a success case and after which it usually takes a number of years prior to reaching first production of commercial hydrocarbons”.

Shell’s JV partners in the campaign include Qatar Energy (with 45% working interest, like Shell) and NAMCOR (the state hydrocarbon company, with 10% carried interest).

“Jonker again demonstrated the Joint Venture’s strong commitment to advancing oil & gas exploration in Namibia and to progressing follow-up opportunities after last year’s discoveries. We look forward to continuing our excellent collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Namibia,” the operator delares.

French major TOTALEnergies is targeting up to four wells (including the re-entry of the Venus -1X discovery well, in Block 2913B), to appraise the Venus discovery and to investigate a potential westerly extension of Venus, the Nara prospect on Block 2912.

• Venus -1A, on Block 2913B, to spud in the next few days, will be the first well to be drilled, using the Tungsten Explorer drillship, and is the first appraisal   well on the Venus discovery. This will be followed by a drill stem test using the Deepsea Mira.
• Upon completion of the Venus -1A drill stem test, the Venus -1X exploration well, also on Block 2913B, will be re-entered using the Deepsea Mira to conduct a second drill stem test.
• Nara -1X, an exploration well on the neighbouring licence, Block 2912, will then be drilled and flow tested by the Tungsten Explorer. This is the test of the western extension of the Venus prospect.
• If Nara -1X proves successful, the Nara -1A appraisal well could then be drilled in Block 2912 and flow tested.

This programme will provide vital information that will hopefully enable TOTAL and partners to press ahead with development.

The Venus discovery is a large light oil and associated gas field, located in the Orange Basin, approximately 290 kilometres off the coast of southern Namibia, and in water depth of approximately 3,000 metres. The well was drilled to a total depth of 6,296 metres, by the Maersk Voyager drillship, and encountered a high quality light oil-bearing sandstone reservoir of Lower Cretaceous age.

Drilling of Venus -1A, the first appraisal well on the Venus discovery, will be located approximately 13 kilometres to the north of the Venus -1X discovery well and drilled using the Tungsten Explorer drillship. The Deepsea Mira will then be used to conduct a drill stem test at this location.

The Deepsea Mira will then re-enter and side-track the Venus -1X well and conduct a flow test. The objective of this programme is to further evaluate the Venus reservoir and deliver dynamic data.

Block 2913B (PEL 56). PEL 56 is operated by TOTALEnergies who holds, a 40% working interest, with Impact Oil7Gas holding 20% and QatarEnergy and NAMCOR respectively hold a 30% and 10% working interest.

Block 2912 (PEL 91)may contain a highly material westerly extension of the Venus field. Operations by TOTALEnergies during 2023, on behalf of the Joint Venture, are designed to explore and, if successful test, this potential extension of the Venus accumulation into Block 2912 and provide an understanding of the structure and reservoir quality.

By Toyin Akinosho, Lagos, Nigeria

After a swirl of good press featuring salutary articles about its daring into an under explored frontier basin and encountering a working petroleum system, ReconAfrica now appears to have arrived at that point where all the spears are aimed at it.

The Canadian independent is entangled in a class action suit in New York, United States, filed by shareholders who accuse it of issuing misleading statements that convinced them to buy shares between February 2019 and September 2021 – shares that have since tanked in value. “Defendants concealed material information from the public about the data from their first two oil and gas test wells, and about their plans to frack in Namibia, while selling millions of dollars of ReconAfrica stock to unsuspecting investors,” lawyers for the aggrieved investors wrote in papers filed in court.

ReconAfrica, in 2021, drilled two stratigraphic test wells in a very large, previously unregarded sedimentary basin, called the Kavango Basin onshore northern Namibia.  The 6-1 and 6-2 wells, the company reported, intersected over 300 metres  and 200metres of oil and gas shows respectively. ReconAfrica did not call any of these a discovery. Indeed, it stated clearly that “the two wells were drilled to provide stratigraphic, sedimentological, reservoir and geochemical information”.  Although the data in both wells was very positive, neither 6-1 nor 6-2 was tested since they were designed to be only stratigraphic wells.

Makandina 8-2, which was ReconAfrica’s third well in the basin, was the company’s first seismically defined probe in the campaign. It failed to encounter economic accumulations of hydrocarbons. The company placed the blame on the absence of a trap or a four-way dip closure.

But a lot of the complaints about ReconAfrica today is associated with claims that the explorer convinced people to buy shares, as if it went to town screaming: “Hey we have a hydrocarbon discovery here!” From a technical viewpoint, I think ReconAfrica did an amazing job defining an unknown basin using aero-gravity data.

But I also think they should not have started drilling before any seismic was recorded and interpreted.  I consider it sheer carelessness on their part not to have brought in test equipment for the first well, even it was called a stratigraphic well.  Had ReconAfrica tested even a small amount of oil, even as low as 500Barrels of Oil Per Day, it would have established their credibility.  But with no testing, nothing solid is known, just speculation.

The stock has been extremely volatile and this has been accelerated by the short sellers.

I wasn’t surprised that the Namibia government sold its half of its equity back to ReconAfrica. No.

I know the Namibian government to be extremely risk averse. You just need to take a look at its attitude to the Kudu field development (space will not permit me to go into that here) to understand the psychology behind its bailing out of Kavango.

One cynical report about ReconAfrica’s operations, published in the Daily Maverick, a widely respected South African platform, had a sentence that leapt at me: “Announcing the results of the third well in November, ReconAfrica said it had found no commercial oil, but still insisted that the data confirmed the presence of a working petroleum system”. That’s an extremely clueless statement.

Personally, I wish ReconAfrica a lot of luck. It’s a brave adventurer who came to forage for hydrocarbon in an unexplored miogeosyncline at a time (yes, right at the height of the pandemic) when nothing was happening anywhere.

Toyin Akinosho, publisher of Africa Oil+Gas Report, is a petroleum geoscientist of over three decades’ postgraduate experience.

By Sully Manope, in Windhoek

Media reports about the conclusion of the Mikuyu-1 and Mikuyu-1 Sidetrack have played up the number of hydrocarbons shows encountered by these keenly watched wildcats.

But Invictus Energy, the Australian listed operator and 80% equity holder ofthe SG 4571 licence in Zimbabwe’s Cabora Bassa Basin, has never uttered the word “discovery” in any of its correspondences on the subject.

The company’s focus on identification of ”13 potential hydrocarbon bearing zones and combined 225metre gross potential hydrocarbon bearing zones identified in primary Upper Angwa target”, which have become  attention grabbing headlines, could, however create a “ReconAfrica Moment” for Invictus, as it can edge on investors to mentally mapping the “lead time” to first oil.

The company admits that “some gross intervals may contain significant proportions of non-net reservoir. Further log calibration will be obtained following completion of side wall core analysis”.

What is more, there were several challenges that Invictus faced in the process of drilling and they should have been farther up in the press releases than they are. A few:

• Wireline log interpretation calculated porosity of up to 15% and gas saturation of up to 90% in selected potential pay zones in the Upper Angwa but are yet to be calibrated with fluid and core data and subsequently subject to wide margins of error.
• Weak to strong hydrocarbon fluorescence was noted from approximately 2,100metre Measured Depth (mMD) in the Pebbly Arkose and was consistent to TD at 3,923mMD, with up to 100% fluorescence observed in some cuttings and side wall cores.
• Further reservoir and potential pay intervals in the Upper Angwa intersected when the Mukuyu1 well was deepened from 3,618 to 3,923m could not be fully evaluated due to a breakdown in the borehole, preventing logging of the deepened section.

Invictus is still interpreting the well data with results to be integrated into the seismic interpretation and basin models to guide future well locations and exploration prospect selection. Of note is that planning has commenced for Mukuyu appraisal & Phase 2 drilling and evaluation.

The Company is now assessing the forward work programme and a range of targets for the first well in its Phase 2 drilling campaign, including Mukuyu-2 and Baobab-1, as well as other promising exploration prospects identified across the wider Cabora Bassa acreage. The timing of the forward exploration and drilling will be determined following the completion of long lead and well services tendering exercises which are commencing imminently.