Offshore staff

HOUSTON – Ophir Energy plc (LN:OPHR) has begun its Equatorial Guinea drilling campaign. The Eirik Raude semisubmersible drilling rig spudded the first well in block R earlier this month.

The rig will drill the top-hole sections at Fortuna East and Fortuna West, and then move to Tonel 1 to drill the entire well. Upon completion of Tonel 1, the rig will return to complete work at Fortuna East and Fortuna West.

Tonel-1 targets multiple stacked mid-Miocene targets within a stacked, thrust belt. The primary target (510 bcf) is DHI supported. Results are expected to be released in late July.  

Fortuna West and Fortuna East are step out exploration wells from the Fortuna-1 gas discovery. These wells target multiple stacked prospects of Miocene to Pliocene age. Both primary targets within the stacked objectives are DHI supported and each has a mean unrisked resource estimate of 300 bcf.

Elsewhere in Africa, Ophir continues drilling in Tanzania block 3 on the Papa 1 well. The Deepsea Metro 1 completed operations at the Mzia-1 discovery (block 1) and then moved to the Papa-1 location in block 3. The well spudded on May 29 and is estimated to take 65 days to complete. Papa-1 targets the Upper Cretaceous intra-slope channel play within the Rufiji delta.

Processing of the pre-salt 3D-seismic survey taken in the Gabon pre-salt Mbeli and Ntsina prospects is approximately 50% complete. Ophir and Petrobras expect to receive the final processed dataset in 4Q 2012. Drilling of the first pre-salt target is anticipated in early 2013, subject to rig availability.

7/03/2012