Cairn finds more oil in FAN area offshore Senegal

July 11, 2017
The drillship Stena DrillMAX has completed drilling and wireline logging operations at the FAN South-1 exploration well in the South Fan prospect offshore Senegal.

Offshore staff

EDINBURGH, UK – The drillship Stena DrillMAX has completed drilling and wireline logging operations at the FAN South-1 exploration well in the South Fan prospect offshore Senegal.

According to operator Cairn Energy, the well encountered hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir in the Lower Cretaceous, with oil samples retrieved.

Initial analysis suggests 31° API oil. Work continues to integrate results from this and the 2014 FAN-1 well.

FAN South-1 was drilled in 2,175 m (7,136 ft) water depth, 90 km (56 mi) offshore in the Sangomar Deep Offshore block and 30 km (18.6 mi) southwest of FAN-1.

It reached TD of 5,343 m (17,529 ft), after targeting an Upper Cretaceous stacked multi-layer channelized turbidite fan prospect and a Lower Cretaceous base of slope turbidite fan prospect, similar to FAN-1. The well is being P&A’d.

The drillship will next drill the SNE North (Sirius) prospect, 15 km (9.3 mi) north of theSNE-1 discovery well and the most northern location tested to date on the concession. It will target volumes of more than 80 MMbbl in multiple objectives, in 900 m (2,953 ft) water depth, with a projected TD of 2,800 m (9,186 ft).

Cath Norman, managing director of Cairn’s partner FAR, said: “The discovery of oil in FAN South-1 yet again verifies the quality of the oil and gas generating system in our offshore Senegal permits and is another significant result.

“The basinal fan play offshore Senegal is clearly a very large, but technically complex system which will require further evaluation to understand the commerciality of this deepwater basin area.”

07/11/2017