Sonangol accelerates drilling offshore Angola

Sonangol has accelerated the 2026 drilling program on Block 3/05, 37 km offshore Angola in 40-100 m of water.

The program will start with the Pacassa SW well which is expected to have a drilling duration of 80-90 days. The second well will be either a Pacassa SW injection well or the Impala-2 development well, with the decision dependent on the outcome of the initial Pacassa SW well and operational preparedness.

Pacassa SW is an undrilled fault block adjacent to Pacassa field which has potential to contain up to 210 million bbl of oil in place. The well will be drilled from the Pacassa F4 platform which, in the event of a successful outcome, will allow the well to be completed and connected to the existing production infrastructure. A successful outcome will also provide the opportunity to define the full development of the Pacassa SW area of up to 70 million bbl oil recoverable resources, the company said.

Impala-2 will be drilled from the Impala wellhead platform into Impala field about 1,000 m from the existing Impala-1 production well. The well will assist in defining the field's upside potential which could contain up to 200 million bbl oil in place. Upon completion, the well will be connected to the existing production infrastructure. The outcome also will assist in defining the optimum Impala field development which has up to 50 million bbl oil of incremental recoverable resources.

The Borr Grid jackup rig is currently under contract to Sonangol, but an opportunity has allowed Block 3/05 joint venture partners to sign a commercial agreement with Sonangol to use the rig for the planned two-well drilling program.

Block 3/05 comprises eight mid-life producing fields: Palanca, Impala, Impala SE, Bufalo, Pacassa, Pambi, Cobo, and Oombo, with gross 2P reserves of 106.3 mmbo. Recovery is about 42% to date.  The license contains extensive field infrastructure with 157 wells and 17 installations, including the Palanca floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel for oil export.

Sonangol is operator of Block 3/05 (36%) with partners Afrenta plc (30%), M&P (30%), ETU Energies (10%) and NIS Naftagas (4%).