Tullow Oil discovers oil in Ngara-1 well

Tullow Oil PLC will suspend the Ngara-1 exploration well as a future oil producer after finding over 8 m of net oil pay in the Butiaba region of Uganda’s Block 2.

Aug. 5, 2009

2 min read

Uchenna Izundu
OGJ International Editor

LONDON, Aug. 5 -- Tullow Oil PLC will suspend the Ngara-1 exploration well as a future oil producer after finding over 8 m of net oil pay in the Butiaba region of Uganda’s Block 2.

The well reached a TD of 741 m and has been successfully logged and sampled. “Good quality basal sands were encountered with over 8 m of net oil pay in a 17 m gross reservoir interval with additional potential up-dip,” said Tullow Oil.

Company officials said Ngara-1 is encouraging because it provides additional information to assess two adjacent traps within the fault block. The company is planning a detailed basin development plan that will encompass this and the Ngege-1 discovery 3 km away. “Consideration will be given to these and other prospects as part of the next Block 2 drilling campaign, which is expected to commence early in 2010,” added Tullow Oil.

Angus McCoss, exploration director at Tullow Oil said this was the tenth discovery in the Victoria Nile Delta play. “We are now planning to integrate all regional well and seismic data with the recently acquired gravity survey. The results from this work will further enhance our understanding of the subsurface and identify additional prospectivity within the region.”

The company is using the Nabors 221 rig to drill the high impact Ngassa-2 well on Block 2, which remains on track to reach total depth in August.

Venus prospect
In a separate development, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said during a conference call for its second quarter results that Tullow Oil had farmed into its Venus prospect in Sierra Leone.

A Tullow Oil spokesman told OGJ that it would have a 10% interest in the Venus prospect, subject to the government's approval.

Tullow Oil has not confirmed it, but Citigroup said in an analyst’s note: “We believe it is highly likely given the shared willingness of both companies to further explore the West African Transform margin, which they believe is on trend with their Jubilee discovery in Ghana.”

Anadarko will use the Belford Dolphin rig to drill the prospect on block SL-6/07, which will take about 45 days to reach TD.

Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected]