Building on its success in Ghana with the Jubilee discovery, Kosmos Energy plans to drill four possible play-opening wells in the next 18 months to test more than 4 Bboe of gross resource with even more follow-on potential.

Kosmos CEO Andy Inglis spoke about the company’s exploration portfolio strategy and its focused pursuit of unlocking new plays, particularly along the Atlantic Transform Margin, during the Barclays CEO Energy Power Conference. As part of what Inglis called the “second inning”—the first being the opening of the Tano Basin petroleum system offshore Ghana with Jubilee and later the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) development with Tullow Oil as operator—Kosmos has its sight set on stacked Cretaceous channels in four-way dip closures. Seismic data show strong evidence of working petroleum systems.

The top four prospects are Gargaa, offshore Western Sahara (Morocco); Tortue, offshore the Mauritania and Senegal border; Orca, offshore Mauritania; and Anapai, offshore Suriname, said Inglis, whose presentation was broadcast via webcast this week. If successful, the wells could de-risk an additional 18 Bboe of identified, follow-on potential. The deepwater wins would also be positives for a sector of the oil and gas industry that has been marred by a drop in discoveries as unconventional shale plays, such as those in the U.S., flourish.

“Unsuccessful deepwater exploration has led to a significant decline in discovered resources over the past several years,putting pressure on reserves and production replacements and challenging future growth. Additionally, increased costs and development delays have further eroded shareholder confidence in this sector of the industry,” Inglis said. “This is now causing many exploration-led companies to reallocate capital to focus on lower risk developments.

“Companies are doing this because they either lack the belief in their exploration strategies and the resulting portfolios that they’ve built, or they lack cash flow to support their programs,” he continued. “The challenge for conventional deepwater exploration companies, like Kosmos, is to repeatedly open up new basins cost effectively and in doing so generate follow-on exploration success.”

That is what the self-funded exploration company aims to do. The company’s strategy targets “opportunities that offer high-value barrels through the size of the prospects, the scale of the follow-on prospectivity and the attractiveness of the fiscal terms,” Inglis said, noting that is what frontier exploration is all about. He added that Kosmos demonstrated the success of this approach with Jubilee, which is at the low end of the cost curve with a breakeven of about $40. The same approach will be taken with the next round of prospects, but this time on a larger portfolio.

Encouraging 3-D seismic data acquired offshore Mauritania prompted Kosmos to recently expand its portfolio, gaining acreage in Senegal and Portugal.

“With these positions, we’ve nearly doubled our exploration inventory over the last three years to around 37 billion barrels of mean gross unrisked potential. This is more than six times the potential of our first inning portfolio,” Inglis continued. “Equally as important as the quantum of the portfolio is the quality of the prospects. We have a range of high-volume, high-value play-opening prospects in multiple fairways with the risk of commercial success of between one in four to one in five.”

All four of the prospects are Cretaceous targets, cover large areas and have what Inglis said are “strong geophysical attributes and direct hydrocarbon indicators which allow us to reduce the risk and maximize the chance for success.”

Gargaa prospect: The 22,000-sq-km (8,494-sq-mile) Cap Boujdour Block (Kosmos, 55% interest operator)in the Aaiun Basin offshore Morocco has an 11-plus Bboe potential in multiple plays and fairways, with the strong evidence of a reservoir and source based on 2-D and 3D seismic data. Targeting hanging wall anticlines and footwall fault blocks, Kosmos plans to spud a well here later this year with the Atwood Achiever drillship. Atwood Oceanics reported this week that the vessel should arrive in northwest Africa in early December for the three-year exploration drilling program. Estimated potential resource: 1 Bboe. De-risked follow-on potential: 11 Bboe.

“This first mover would capture the largest undrilled Cretaceous delta along the south Atlantic margin, being similar in size to the Niger Delta,” Inglis said.

Tortue prospect: Kosmos has 60% interest and serves as operator in the acreage covering 18,000 sq km (6,950 sq miles) in the Sengal River Basin, where the company is pursuing a string of stacked Cretaceous-age reservoirs trapped in a four-way dip closure. Estimated potential resource: 2 Bboe. De-risked follow-on potential: 3 Bboe.

Orca prospect: With 90% interest in three blocks that combined cover 27,000 sq km (10,425 sq miles) in the Nouakchott River Basin offshore Mauritania, Kosmos believes it will hit a working petroleum system, especially considering that recent well results from just to the northeast of the acreage confirm both oil and gas condensate. Plans are to spud the first well in 2015. Estimated potential resource: 300 MMboe. De-risked follow-on potential: 2.8 Bboe.

Anapai prospect: With Chevron as partner, Inglis said the Anapai prospect—11,000 sq km (4,247 sq miles)—is aiming for Cretaceous reservoirs in large, structural traps. The prospect in the Guyana Basin is downdip of the producing Tambaredjo oil field. Estimated potential resource: 700 MMboe. De-risked follow-on potential: 520 MMboe.

“We have the right team with a proven track record of success in deepwater exploration and development. We have the right exploration strategy to open frontier and emerging basins, and we demonstrated the success of that strategy in our first inning,” Inglis continued. “Over the last three years we have built a high-impact second inning exploration portfolio and are poised to commence drilling four wells over the next 18 months to test 4 billion barrels of gross inventory—2.2 billion barrels net to Kosmos—and if successful, [this] would unlock a further 18 billion barrels of gross potential resource.”

Contact the author, Velda Addison, at vaddison@hartenergy.com.