Mobil-Ocean press action off Equatorial Guinea

Mobil Corp. and Ocean Energy Inc. plan to ramp up exploration and production on Block B off Equatorial Guinea. Four wildcats are to be drilling by yearend. The firms have notched seven commercial oil discoveries out of 16 wildcats drilled mostly on the northeastern part of the 547,000 acre block that borders Nigerian waters since the mid-1990s.

Aug. 31, 1998

2 min read

Mobil Corp. and Ocean Energy Inc. plan to ramp up exploration and production on Block B off Equatorial Guinea.

Four wildcats are to be drilling by yearend. The firms have notched seven commercial oil discoveries out of 16 wildcats drilled mostly on the northeastern part of the 547,000 acre block that borders Nigerian waters since the mid-1990s.

Total development spending for wells and facilities is to have reached $900 million through 2000, Mobil said. Facilities are planned that will hike production capacity to 120,000 b/d that year from the present 80,000 b/d. June 1998 production averaged 86,000 b/d.

Zafiro field, discovered in March 1995, went on production in August 1996. Seven subsea wells were drilled in 1996, and nine more wells drilled last year brought production capacity to about 80,000 b/d.

Planned facilities include a fixed drilling/production platform installed in the Zafiro area and addition of gas lift and water injection facilities to the Zafiro Producer floating production, storage, and offloading vessel. Water injection facilities are to be operational by early September, and gas lift operations are to be ready in early 1999.

Block B interests are Mobil 71.25%, Ocean Energy 23.75%, and the government 5%.

Drilling program

The Turmalina wildcat was drilling in early August on Block B, to be followed by the Berilio and Plata wildcats, Ocean Energy said.

The Jade 4 horizontal development well was placed on production at an initial rate of 9,862 b/d of oil. Opalo East 1 and 2 were placed on production at a combined 24,365 b/d of oil.

Meanwhile, Ocean Energy hiked its interest in Block D to 100% and began exploratory drilling. The block lies between Zafiro field and Alba gas/condensate field to the east (see map, OGJ, July 27, 1998, p. 96).

The 1998 program on 190,000 acre Block D includes three shallow water wildcats. Estaurolita was drilling in early August, and Apatito and Zirconia also are to be drilled this year.

Farther seaward, meanwhile, Mobil has added the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe to its list of objectives in the Gulf of Guinea. The company plans to evaluate more than 25% of Sao Tome's waters under an agreement with the newly formed national oil company (OGJ, Aug. 24, 1998, Newsletter).