Eni has completed a production test on its Minsala Marine 1 exploration well offshore West Africa’s Congo, with the probe delivering more than 5,000 b/d of oil and 14 MMcf/d of gas, with the operator already lining it up for commercial development.

The Italian operator said the test in the Marine XII Block, approx­imately 35 km offshore and 12 km from the recent Nené Marine discovery, flowed from an opened section of 37 m (121 ft) out of the 420 m (1,378 ft) oil column identified in the discovery.

The oil is of 41 degrees API, with preliminary estimates by Eni putting the potential of Minsala Marine at about 1 Bboe in place, of which 80% is oil. The operator has scheduled an appraisal plan for the discovery and begun studying a commercial development of its reserves. This is likely to revolve around subsea tiebacks to existing Eni production infrastructure closer to shore.

“The production test results have exceeded expectations and enables us to plan a fast commercial development of the important Minsala Marine find, similarly to what had been done at Nene Marine,” said Claudio Descalzi, CEO at Eni.

His company has over the last four years carried out a targeted exploration programme in the presalt geological plays of West Africa’s shallow waters, achieving impressive results. In this play Eni has already discovered nearly 4 Bboe in place between Congo and Gabon. In the Marine XII permit specifically, there have been three discoveries: Minsala Marine, Litchjendily Marine and Nené Marine. These are all located in conventional waters close to existing infrastructure and can therefore be brought into production shortly and at competitive costs, said the Italian company.

Eni is operator of the Marine XII block with a 65% stake.

Offshore