1------Deepwater Gas Found in Senegal
Kosmos Energy has made a gas discovery in its Teranga-1 exploration well offshore Senegal.
Located in the Cayar Offshore Profond block approximately 40 mi (65 km) northwest of Dakar in nearly 5,906 ft (1,800 m) of water, the Teranga-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 14,715 ft (4,485 m).
The well encountered 31 m (102 ft) of net gas pay in good-quality reservoir in the Lower Cenomanian objective. Well results confirm that a prolific inboard gas fairway extends approximately 124 mi (200 km) from the Marsouin-1 well in Mauritania through the Greater Tortue area on the maritime boundary to the Teranga-1 well in Senegal.
Kosmos has now drilled five consecutive successful exploration and appraisal wells in this fairway with a 100% success rate.
In the process, the company has discovered a gross Pmean resource of approximately 25 tcf and estimates the fairway may hold more than 50 tcf of resource potential.
Andrew G. Inglis, chairman and CEO, said: “Our continuing exploration success demonstrates we have opened a super-major scale basin offshore Mauritania and Senegal with world-class resource potential. Given the scale and quality of the gas resource discovered along the inboard trend, our focus is to move this resource through to development.
“Our forward exploration plan is to mature the two independent tests with oil potential in northern Mauritania and in the outboard of Mauritania and Senegal for drilling in 2017.”
2--------INPEX Drills Wildcat Offshore Japan
INPEX has spudded an exploratory well offshore Japan’s Shimane and Yamaguchi prefectures.
The program is part of a project commissioned by the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for the “Heisei 26~28 Domestic Offshore Drilling Program in Japan.”
The location is 130 km (81 mi) northwest of Shimane and 140 km (87 mi) north of Yamaguchi Prefecture. INPEX aims to prove hydrocarbons via detailed analysis and evaluation of data obtained through the exploratory drilling.
3------ New Zealand Water Injection Repairs Nearly Over
Upgrade work is progressing on the mooring system for the Maari FPSO offshore New Zealand.
Once the program is finished, repairs should start to the field’s water injection line.
A simultaneous multi-well workover campaign is also proceeding as planned. Production has continued during the mooring campaign, although some wells have experienced short-term shut-ins for operational reasons.
Once water injection has been reinstated, daily production should be enhanced due to resumed pressure support for key producers.
Thereafter production from Maari should stabilize for the rest of the year at around 12,000 b/d.
Cue has a 15% interest in the nearby offshore PEP 51313 permit, also operated by OMV.
The partners are assessing the remaining potential associated with the Matariki trend, up-dip of the Maari field. OMV is finalizing studies to determine the feasibility of acquiring additional 3D seismic to reduce the geologic risk of the remaining prospects.
Over the next few months Cue will decide whether to join the next stage of the permit work program, which will include acquisition and processing of 100 sq km (38.6 sq mi) of 3D seismic, or reprocessing of 100 sq km of existing 3D data.
4----- Venezuela Pipe Replacement Done
PDVSA, Roffco, and IMR Global Supply have completed what is claimed to be the first project to replace large-diameter steel oil pipelines with flexible oil lines in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela.
IMR performed the installation using the purpose-built vessel Zumaque Tracer. Aquatic Engineering & Construction provided technicians and equipment to handle and deploy the pipelines, and project management, engineering and operational support.
Lake Maracaibo is a large brackish bay connected to the Gulf of Venezuela by the 55-km (34-mi) Tablazo Strait at the northern end, and fed by numerous rivers, the largest being the Catatumbo. The lake is a major shipping route to the ports of Maracaibo and Cabimas.
The first part of the installation took place in late 2015 using 18 reels supplied by GE Oil & Gas/Wellstream. These comprised eight reels of 9-in. ID pipe and 10 of 12-in. ID pipe on 28-ft (8.5-m) diameter 200-metric ton (220-ton) reels.
The Wellstream reels and Aquatic equipment spread – a 500-metric (551-ton) ton modular drive system, 50-metric ton (55-ton) tensioner and ancillary equipment, were loaded at Port of Blyth, northeast England, onto the transportation vessel, HC Paulina for shipping to Ciudad Ojeba, Venezuela.
On arrival, all equipment was transferred to the installation vessel.
5----Providence Secures License Offshore Ireland
Providence Resources has secured a new licensing option following the conclusion of the second phase of awards in the Atlantic Margin licensing round (AMLR).
The company has agreed to terms to raise capital partly to assist in covering the cost of its portfolio of projects and prospects offshore Ireland.
As part of the AMLR, Providence (80%) operated a joint evaluation and bidding group with Sosina Exploration (20%).
The Providence-led group has been offered licensing option 16/27 over an area of around 1,324 sq km (511 sq mi) in the Porcupine basin. The option area is located about 150 km (93 mi) offshore western Ireland and is situated in around 1,300 m (4,265 ft) water depth.
The licensing option lies directly adjacent to and north of frontier exploration license (FEL) 3/04, which contains the Lower Cretaceous Dunquin North residual oil column.
Last July, Providence agreed to acquire Atlantic Petroleum (Ireland) Ltd.’s 4% stake in FEL 3/04. Subject to approval by the Irish government and the fulfilment of the remaining terms and conditions under the farm-out agreement with Atlantic, Providence’s non-operated stake in FEL 3/04 will increase from 16% to 20%.
During regional interpretation and mapping of vintage 2D seismic reflection data, Providence identified an extensive north-south orientated Paleocene basin-floor channel and fan system within the Porcupine basin’s axial. Termed the Avalon system, it runs about 550 sq km (212 sq mi) and is interpreted to be sourced from the north of the basin and shales out in a southerly distal direction.