Amerada Hess announces another oil discovery off Equatorial Guinea

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, June 19 -- Amerada Hess Corp. said Tuesday its G-10 exploration well drilled on Block G in the Rio Muni basin off Equatorial Guinea made a significant new oil discovery, dubbed Abang.

The well, drilled to 6,027 ft TD in 323 feet of water, encountered 170 ft of net pay, 157 ft of oil and 13 ft of gas. The discovery is 14 miles northeast of Amerada Hess's Ceiba field, 2 miles east of the Oveng discovery, and 2.5 miles northwest of the Elon find.

A phased development plan for Okume, Oveng, Ebano, Akom, Elon, and Abang fields in the northern part of Block G will now be finalized and submitted for government approval, said Brian Maxted, senior vice president in charge of West African operations at Amerada Hess.

The New York-based company has an 85% working interest in and is operator of Block G and adjacent Block F. Energy Africa Ltd. of South Africa has the remaining 15% working interest. The government of Equatorial Guinea has a carried 5% interest in current production from Ceiba field. It will have the same carried 5% participating interest in any commercial production from Okume, Oveng, Ebano, Akom, Elon, and Abang, officials said.

The Elon discovery was drilled to 5,977 ft TD in 210 ft of water and found 157 ft of net oil pay 15 miles northeast of Ceiba and 6 miles southeast of the Akom discovery, made in late February by the G-7 well, drilled to 8,140 ft TD in 1,456 ft of water with 162 ft of net oil pay (OGJ, Apr. 1, 2002, p.8).

Ceiba field resumed oil production in late January at a rate of more than 50,000 b/d, following the installation in the field of a replacement floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (OGJ Online, Feb. 26, 2002).