Offshore staff

LONDON – The drillship Odfjell Metro-1 has started drilling Mzia-1, the first of three wells this year for BG International offshore Tanzania.

Like the next planned well, Jodari-1, Mzia-1 is in block 1. They will be followed by the third well, Papa-1.

Metro-1 can drill in water depths of up to 3,000 m (9,842 ft), and has a dual derrick with a main work center and an auxiliary work center to facilitate simultaneous operations.

For reasons of efficiency the Mzia-1 top hole section is being drilled first, as part of a batch drilling program. The drillship will then drill Jodari-1 in its entirety, before returning to Mzia-1 to complete the bottom portion of the well.

Mzia-1 well is being drilled in 1,500 m (4,921 ft) of water. Jodari-1 well will spud in a water depth of 1,155 m (3,789 ft) and drill to TD of around 4,600 m (15,092 ft) subsea.

According to BG’s partner Ophir Energy, Jodari appears to hold multiple stacked targets in both the Tertiary and Cretaceous sections, and could contain 2.2 tcf of gas in the stacked targets.

Ophir is operator of Tanzania’s East Pande license, where the Fugro Geo Caribbean vessel is working on a 2,200-sq km (849-sq mi) 3D seismic program expected to take 40 days to complete. It is designed to mature prospects that could be drilled late in 2012.

Offshore West Africa, Ophir is close to securing a rig for a three-four well campaign in Equatorial Guinea’s extended block R, which should start in late March.

Here the 60-day program is designed to prove up sufficient gas volumes to justify a second LNG train in Equatorial Guinea. It will include one or more appraisal wells on Ophir’s Fortuna-1 discovery, and exploration wells on the Tonel and Silenus prospects.

Late in December the PGS Apollo mobilized from Port Gentil for a 2,100-sq km (811-sq mi) 3D seismic survey over the Mbeli and Ntsina licenses, which Ophir operated in partnership with Petrobras.

This program is designed to mature presalt targets for drilling in late 2012.

01/04/2012