Land exploration and development have shown great promise lately in Gabon, where offshore operations dominate.
Shell Gabon SA in partnership with Pan-Ocean Energy Corp. Ltd., St. Helier, Jersey, UK, spudded a second well at press time near the Awokou-1 discovery on the 1,112-sq-km Awoun concession 8 km north of giant Avocette field operated by units of Shell and Total.
The companies are 50-50 partners in the concession subject to a 20% government back-in. The Awokou-1 well on the Koula prospect came in close to prognosis and found light oil in thick Gamba sandstone. TD is 1,926 m.
Further evaluation showed the Gamba oil column to be 29 m thick with no gas cap in the drilled formation. The second well, Awodam-1, spudded in mid-October 3 km southwest of Awokou-1.
Pan-Ocean's estimates of recoverable volumes from Koula are 30 million bbl at P50 level and 40 million bbl at P10.
The new field is also 5 km northwest of the producing Obangue field, where Pan-Ocean as operator plans to drill two development wells in November and December 2004.
Tsiengui confirmed
The same rig drilled Pan-Ocean's second well on the Tsiengui prospect just east of Koula on the 1,064-sq-km Maghena Permit.
Petrophysical logs and pressure analysis indicated that well, TST-2, encountered 14 m of net oil pay and 31 m of gas column in the Gamba sandstone. It also found a thick Upper Dentale reservoir sequence.
Pan-Ocean, which holds 100% interest in Tsiengui field before a 7.5% government back-in, planned to drill and complete a horizontal section to prepare the well for production.
Gas has no value in this region at the moment.
The company's estimate at Tsiengui is 21 million bbl at P50 and 28 million bbl at P10.
Pan-Ocean has said that the Gamba and Dentale sandstones lie beneath thick and highly variable salt layers in this part of Gabon. Application of prestack depth migration has led to marked improvement in seismic interpretation.
The company said it has identified 23 pools in the basin.
One forward view has oil production starting from Tsiengui in mid-2005 and Koula in mid-2006.
Pan-Ocean said its 10,200 b/d of light, sweet oil production in Gabon comes 32% from land fields and 68% from offshore fields. Two of the offshore discoveries in which it holds interests, Etame Marin and Avouma, are undeveloped.
