Cairn Finds Oil At South Fan Prospect Offshore Senegal
Cairn Energy’s FAN South-1 well offshore Senegal encountered a hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir in the Lower Cretaceous, adding to the potential commerciality of the area’s deepwater resources, the company said July 11.
Preliminary analysis indicates 31 degree API oil quality. Located in a water depth of about 2,175 m (7,136 ft) in the Sangomar Deep Offshore Block, the well was drilled by the Stena DrillMAX drillship about 30 km (19 miles) southwest of the FAN-1 exploration well.
“FAN South is our 10th well in Senegal in the last three years and our second well to encounter oil in the deep portion of the basin, adjacent to the FAN discovery,” Cairn Energy CEO Simon Thomson said in the release. “The results of FAN South will be integrated with FAN-1 and SNE to help the joint venture’s ongoing evaluation of the large, deepwater basin potential offshore Senegal.”
FAN South -1 is being plugged and abandoned, and the rig is moving to begin operations at the SNE North exploration prospect, 15 km (9 miles) north of the SNE-1 discovery well. It will be the northernmost location yet tested and is on trend with the SNE Field, Cairn said. SNE North, located in about 900 m (2,953 ft) water depth, is targeting a prospective volume of more than 80 MMbbl of total resources in multiple objectives.
ION Grows West Africa 2-D Data Library With Gabon Acquisition
ION Geophysical is working on a new 2-D multiclient program offshore Gabon that includes more than 1,900 km (1,181 miles) seismic data described as high-quality and deeply-imaged.
Called EquatorSPAN II, the program will “image the deep basin architecture, define the limits of the various basins along the equatorial margin and identify potential petroleum system,” the company said in a news release.
The data will built add to ION’s data library, which already includes more than 500,000 km (310,686 miles) of 2-D data and more than 100,000 sq km (38,610 sq miles) of 3-D data worldwide, and tie into existing datasets in the region.
The program, which is supported with industry prefunding, is being conducted in cooperation with the Gabon Ministry of Petroleum and Hydrocarbons, Direction Général des Hydrocarbures of Gabon.
Greece Approves Oil Exploration Applications
Greece approved applications submitted by a consortium of Total, ExxonMobil and Hellenic Petroleum for oil and gas exploration and drilling off the island of Crete, its energy ministry said on June 23.
The ministry also approved an application submitted by Greece’s sole oil producer Energean Oil for offshore drilling in western Greece, the ministry said.
Greece’s oil and gas resources management company will launch a tender for licenses to drill in the respective blocks by the end of next month, aiming to conclude the procedure by the end of the year.
—Staff & Reuters Reports
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