By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 8 -- Bowleven PLC has cemented off the lower portion of the Sapele-1 exploratory well off Cameroon after encountering a high-pressure gas reservoir in the Cretaceous.
Sapele-1 went to a total depth of 4,733 m on Block MLHP-5 of the Etinde Permit in the Douala basin. The company plans to test the well’s Tertiary discoveries and drill three firm Tertiary and Cretaceous appraisal wells and one contingent well in 2011 using an additional rig expected to arrive late this month.
Bowleven halted drilling due to a “rapid influx of very high pressure gas” that precluded logging.
“Based on an initial analysis of the major step change in pressure encountered and the interpretation of the seismic, it is considered that the well may have encountered a significant hydrocarbon column in the Cretaceous.
“Further analysis of mudlogging and wireline data, together with gas chromatograph ratio analysis, has confirmed oil shows were encountered within thin sands in the upper part of the Cretaceous Epsilon Complex. Further interpretation and calibration of the well and seismic data is required to assess fully the implications for Cretaceous volumetrics,” Bowleven said.
Photo from SABIC Limburg BV.
US Department of the Interior.
