Deeper oil zones targeted in Casamance Dome Flore area

Aug. 18, 2003
Early processing results are encouraging from a 380 sq km 3D seismic survey acquired earlier this year over the Dome Flore and Dome Gea salt dome heavy oil accumulations in the Casamance basin, said operator Fusion Oil & Gas PLC, Perth, WA.

Early processing results are encouraging from a 380 sq km 3D seismic survey acquired earlier this year over the Dome Flore and Dome Gea salt dome heavy oil accumulations in the Casamance basin, said operator Fusion Oil & Gas PLC, Perth, WA.

The accumulations, discovered in 1967 and 1970, are on the 1,600 sq km Dome Flore Concession in the AGC joint development area off Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. The concession extends from shore to more than 100 m of water in the Atlantic. The entire seismic volume was to be subject to prestack depth migration.

Original drilling identified 500 million to more than 1 billion bbl of biodegraded heavy oil in very shallow reservoirs of Oligocene age deemed uneconomic even at prevailing oil prices and using modern technology. The 3D survey was designed to image deeper reservoirs that contained lighter oil and gas in Lower Miocene to Paleocene-Maastrichtian reservoirs.

Fusion said the Dome Flore petroleum system is driven by the same regional Cenomanian-Turonian source rock system proved effective to the north off Mauritania and that the company's work elsewhere in the AGC area suggests the existence of deeper source rocks in Aptian and Albian that could have "a significant effect on prospectivity."

The contract area has several prospective features that display direct hydrocarbon indicators on older seismic data, Fusion said.

Dome Flore, adjacent to two other Fusion-held AGC blocks, has consecutive exploration terms of 3, 2, and 2 years. Block interests are Fusion 85% and L'Entreprise AGC SA, AGC's commercial arm. AGC, or Agence de Gestion et de Cooperation entre la Guinee-Bissau et le Senegal, is a joint commission established to administer the maritime border zone between the two West African countries.