Eni SPA has announced that its Nene Marine 3 exploration well has discovered wet gas and light oil in the Marine XII block offshore Congo (Brazzaville).
The well was drilled in a water depth of 28 m about 17 km offshore. The gas and oil accumulation was encountered in the presalt clastic sequence at a depth of about 3,000 m.
The discovery significant extends the Nene Marine field and its hydraulic continuity. The new discovery is 2 km from Eni’s previous discovery well Nene Marine 1 and 4 km from Nene Marine 2 (OGJ Online, Aug. 1, 2013).
The Nene Marine 3 flowed more than 5,000 b/d of 36° gravity oil during production tests. The company estimates Nene Marine field to contain 1.2 billion bbl of oil and 30 billion cu m of gas in place. Combined with the neighboring Litchjendilj Marine field, the company estimates a cumulative 2.5 billion boe in place.
Eni holds a 65% interest in the Marine XII block along with partners New Age (25%) and Congo’s national oil company, Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo (10%). The operating company has an equity production of 105,000 b/d in Congo, and expects this number to increase once first production is launched at Nene Marine in 2016.