Cairn group to drill two appraisal wells offshore Senegal

Nov. 28, 2016
The Cairn Energy PLC group containing Melbourne-based FAR Ltd. has announced that two firm appraisal wells will be drilled on the SNE oil discovery offshore Senegal beginning in first-quarter 2017.

The Cairn Energy PLC group containing Melbourne-based FAR Ltd. has announced that two firm appraisal wells will be drilled on the SNE oil discovery offshore Senegal beginning in first-quarter 2017.

The group will use the wells to feed in more information to optimize the SNE development plan prior to its submission to the Senegal government for approval.

The two wells—SNE-5 and SNE-6—will be drilled back-to-back by the Stena Drilling Ltd.’s Stena DrillMAX harsh-environment dynamically positioned drillship within the known field boundaries.

They are designed to evaluate the upper SNE reservoir units and determine the connectivity of the reservoir section with the depositional model that has been interpreted from the existing wells as well as some high-quality 3D seismic data.

Both new wells will undergo extended drill stem testing. If successful, the results are expected to lead to higher than currently estimated ultimate oil recoveries.

The drillship has also been contracted for additional optional wells in the permits.

Cairn has 40% of the permits, ConocoPhillips 35%, FAR 15% and Senegal national company Petrosen 10%.