A group led by a unit of HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA, Rio de Janeiro, has spudded the Murombe-1 exploratory well on PEL 23 in the Walvis basin offshore Namibia.
HRT Walvis Petroleum (Pty.) Ltd. said the Murombe 2212/06-1 well will test a 1,000 sq km basin floor fan on a four-way dip closure at its highest structural elevation in a turbidite complex of Barremian age. The drill site is in 1,391 m of water 220 km northwest of Walvis Bay.
This well, second in a three-well program, is 15 km east of HRT’s Wingat-1 well on PEL 23 that penetrated two excellent oil source rocks from which liquid hydrocarbons were recovered. At Murombe, a shallower secondary objective, the Santonian-age Baobab confined channel complex with turbidite reservoirs, which is between the two source rocks, will also be evaluated.
Boabab is expected at 3,670 m below sea level and Murombe at 5,090 m. Drilling time is an estimated 72 days to 5,360 m.