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The Party Last Time Africa’s 2012 Hydrocarbon Finds February AAPG 14 JANUARY 2013 WWW.AAPG.ORG

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · February 18, 2013 · No comments |

Cobalt reported that its Cameiapresalt oil discovery in Block 21,offshore Angola, flowed at an unstimulated,sustained rate of 5,010 barrels per day.

Statoil described its Zafarani discovery inBlock 2 offshore Tanzania a “high impact

discovery” with as much as 5 Tcf of gas inplace. ExxonMobil is a partner in the well.

March

Offshore Nigeria, Afren and Amnitested a light oil discovery on OML

112. Afrenclaimed that future horizontal wellsat its Okoro East oil discovery, offshore

southeast Nigeria, should yield 4,500-7,000barrels of oil per day per well.

May

Onshore Kenya, Tullow Oil’sNgamia-1 well found more than 328 feetof oil pay over a gross oil-bearing intervalof 2,130 feet in multiple zones.

Anadarko Petroleum added sevento 20-plus Tcf of recoverable gasoffshore Mozambique at an explorationstrike about 30km northwest of itsProsperidade complex.
In an exploratory well on the EbokNorth Fault Block offshore southeastNigeria, Afren and Oriental EnergyResources identified 370 feet true verticalthickness of net oil pay in what Afren described as “excellentquality reservoir sands.”

BG Group reported a fifth gasdiscovery offshore Tanzania with the Mzia-1exploratory well on Block 1 – a first successin the deeper Cretaceous section.

Agiba, a joint operating company,operated the Emry Deep 1X well about 288km southwest of Alexandria in Egypt,which encountered 250 feet of net pay in multiplesandstones of the Lower Cretaceous AlamEl Bueib Formation and flowed 3,500barrels/day during testing.

Offshore Mozambique, an AnadarkoPetroleum partnership hit more than 300 netfeet of natural gas pay in two high-qualityOligocene fan systems with the Atumdiscovery well in Offshore Area 1 in theRovuma basin.
June

Tullow Oil’s Paon-1X deepwaterexploration well, a light oil discovery in aTuronian fan system in the CI-103 licenseoffshore Cote d’Ivoire, extended a provenoil play westward from previous discoveriesoffshore Ghana.

July

In Offshore Area 4, Mozambique, ENI’sMamba North East-2 giant gas discoveryencountered more than 650 feet of payin stacked, multiple, high-quality zones,adding at least 10 Tcf to the play’s potential.The Papa-1 deepwater wildcat onBlock 3 offshore Tanzania became the first

Cretaceous gas discovery outboard of theRufiji Delta, according to partners OphirEnergy and BG.

November

Tullow Oil said Twiga South-1 in Block13T, onshore Kenya, found 98 feet of net oilpay with further potential to be assessed.

The Mamba South 2 and Coral 2delineation wells in Area 4, Mozambique,added about six Tcf potential in theMamba complex for ENI and partners.

Eni Stays The Course In Sankofa

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · January 27, 2013 · No comments |

Italian major Eni encountered 32metres Net Oil Sand in a gross column of 76metres, in Sankofa East 2A, its first appraisal of the Sankofa East oil discovery, in Ghana’s prolific deepwater Tano Basin. The oil is 30° API, and is stored in sands of cretaceous age.
The well also saw 17metres net gas and condensate out of 23metres of column net), and 76m of gross oil pay in sands of cretaceous age.

Eni’s spokesmen say that the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) block is estimated to contain nearly 450 million barrels of oil and recoverable resources of about 150 million barrels.
The well, which was spudded in 990 meters of water, reached a total depth of 4,050m and discovered extension of the oil reserve in the Cenomanian sequence.

Information from the drilling has confirmed hydraulic communication in the oil prone reservoir between the discovery and the appraisal well, which has prompted Eni to start commercial exploitation of the oil reserves. Eni, through its subsidiary, Eni Ghana Exploration and Production operates the block with 47.2% interest and has partners including Vitol Upstream with a 37.8% interest and Ghana National Petroleum with the remaining 15% interest including an option for an additional 5% share.

Testing Begins In Twiga South 1

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · January 27, 2013 · No comments |

Tullow Oil has commenced a testing programme, on Twiga South-1 onshore Kenya and is expected to be completed by February 2013.
Operations following testing will include the drilling of the Etuko-1 well on what was formerly known as the Kamba prospect and flow testing Ngamia-1, the first commercial discovery in the country.

The Twiga South test “is to build up our knowledge of the natural variance in reservoir performance”, the company says, “ Test flow rates are not expected to exceed 500 BOPD per interval due to the limits of the test equipment, reservoir energy and thereservoir quality”. Five tests are planned with three in the Upper Lokhone reservoir.

TOTAL Hits A Dry Patch In Uganda

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · January 27, 2013 · No comments |

Four wildcat exploration wells were drilled in TOTAL operated EA 1A block in Uganda in December 2012. Three of them failed to encounter commercial pool of hydrocarbons. The wells were drilled to delineate the ultimate basin potential ahead of potential relinquishments.

Riwu-1 (tested far northwestern limits), Raa-1 (tested northern extent), and Til-1 (tested far northeastern limits) did not encounter commercial hydrocarbons. Lyec-1 successfully tested the northern extent of the Jobi East accumulation, encountering oil pay, which is currently under evaluation and re-mapping.

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The Most Profitable Deals Have Been outside Bid Rounds

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · December 24, 2012 · No comments |

The best example of an investor, in the Nigerian oil industry, who has succeeded in acquisitions outside bid rounds, is the Chinese Government.
By Toyin Akinosho,

To go by western media reports, China looms large in countries like Angola and Zambia and Tanzania, resource-rich African countries where the Asian tiger supposedly constructs massive infrastructure projects in exchange for payment with tones of mineral resources or thousands of barrels of oil per day.
In Nigeria, China is largely a contractor; it constructs roads and gets paid with hard cash. Yes? No?
Is that all?
Take another look..

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Horn Returns To The Seismic Board

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · December 24, 2012 · No comments |

After two disappointing wells back to back, Horn Petroleum is focused on preparations for a seismic acquisition in Somalia. The campaign, targeting the Dharoor PSA , will include a regional seismic reconnaissance grid in the previously unexplored eastern portion of the basin.
Efforts are now focused on identifying a drilling location in the western portion of the basin where an active petroleum system was confirmed by the recent drilling of Shabeel-1 and Shabeel North-1. This seismic programme is expected to commence in the first half of 2013.
The company continues to pursue efforts to drill an exploration well in the Nugaal PSA and is working with the Puntland government authorities to move this project forward.

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Maersk May Break The Block 16 Jinx

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · December 23, 2012 · No comments |

Maersk Oil has reported flow rates of up to 3,000BOPD on a 36/64-in choke in Caporolo-1 in Angola’s Block 16. The company drilled the well as a step-out exploration probe on a structure 13 km from the Chissonga discovery. This could prove a field extension, or an additional development to the Chissonga structure, on which Maersk has drilled three appraisal wells. If a commercial field development could be established, Block 16 would be out of the trap it’d been consigned to since Shell walked out on the lease in 1997.

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AP Shoots Large In The Transform Margin

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · December 23, 2012 · No comments |

African Petroleum completed a 4,200 sq km 3D seismic survey over Blocks CI-513 and CI-508, in early October 2012. The work was done by the Chinese geophysical contractor BGP Marine (Prospector PTE Ltd).
The acquisition commenced in April 2012, using the 12- streamer vessel “BGP Prospector”, and the CI-513 survey was completed in mid-July 2012. The vessel continued onto the CI-508 & CI-509 survey, which was completed post quarter end, on 9 October 2012.
The CI-508 survey was being acquired by African Petroleum on behalf of Vitol and partners over Block CI-508, and is subject to a cost sharing agreement executed in June 2012, whereby all seismic acquisition and processing costs are shared on an equal basis.

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Murphy Comes Up Dry In The Congo

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · December 17, 2012 · No comments |

Murphy Oil has plugged and abandoned an unsuccessful offshore well located in the Mer Profonde Nord (MPN) permit in Congo Brazaville.

The company estimates a cost of about $48MM on the drilling of Opale Marine – 1 well in the MPN Block, which will be accounted in its 4th quarter 2012 report. Murphy will also take a non-cash charge of $29MM in the quarter to write off the Titane Marine -1 well which was drilled in October 2010 and was suspended pending results of additional exploratory drilling on the block.

Tullow Fares Poorly In Ghana’s Okure-1

Section: Oil patch Sub-Sahara · December 17, 2012 · No comments |

The news were far from upbeat when Tullow Oil gave an update on its Okure-1 exploration well, on the Deepwater Tano Licence offshore Ghana. The company didn’t say exactly what the net oil count was, after the well had reached total depth of 4,511 meters. The gross hydrocarbon column given was 17metres.
Tullow admitted there was a “low net-to-gross” interval and the sands were “non-reservoir quality formations at the main objective levels below the TEN cluster”. TEN refers to Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme fields, which are to be jointly developed as TEN Project.

The sands in Okure-1 are Turonian age sandstones within an overlying secondary objective. Light oil with a 40° API was recovered from this interval.

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