BW Energy Ltd. has restarted a three-well drilling campaign on the Dussafu license offshore Gabon consisting of two exploration wells in the Hibiscus area and one production well on Tortue field. The Borr Norve jack up rig has been contracted for the campaign.
The campaign will start with the Hibiscus Extension appraisal well (DHIBM-2) about 56 km from shore in 119 m water depth. The well is planned as a vertical to test the northern extension of the Gamba reservoir of Hibiscus field. It is expected to take around 30 days to drill and log to a total depth of 3,500 m. If hydrocarbon-bearing, one or two appraisal sidetracks may be drilled to further delineate the field, the operator said in an Apr. 19 release.
The appraisal well will provide new input to the ongoing Hibiscus-Ruche development project, which is currently based on the discovered 46.1 million bbl gross 2P reserve at Hibiscus and the 24.1 million bbl discovered at Ruche and Ruche North East. Planned development consists of a converted jack up rig tied back to the BW Adolo FPSO with 12 development wells drilled in two phases, with first oil expected in first-quarter 2023. The additional reserves at Hibiscus, if proven by DHIBM-2, may lead to relocation of the first converted jack up and the potential deployment of a second converted jack up. Timing of first oil from the area would not be affected.
Following DHIBM-2, the rig will move to drill the horizontal production well, DTM-7H, at Tortue. Once completed and hooked up along with the previously drilled DTM-6H, phase 2 development of Tortue will be complete, bringing the total number of producing wells at Tortue to six.
The rig will subsequently move to drill the Hibiscus North prospect, 6 km north-northeast of DHIBM-1. Hibiscus North is a separate prospect with estimated potential reserves of 10-40 million b/o.
Hibiscus and Tortue are two of six discovered fields within the Dussafu permit. BW Energy Gabon is operator. Partners are Tullow Oil Gabon SA, Gabon Oil Co., and Panoro Energy ASA. In February, Panoro Energy agreed to acquire an additional 10% interest in the license from Tullow, which, upon completion, would bring its total ownership to 17.5% (OGJ Online, Feb. 9, 2021).