Offshore staff
LONDON -- Afren and partner Oriental Energy have contracted the jackup Transocean Adriatic IX for development drilling on the Ebok field off southeast Nigeria.
The rig has been secured at a rate of $97,000/day for the first 250 days of service, dropping to $85,000/day thereafter, based on a 425-day extension.
Ebok is in Offshore Mining Lease 67. Pending approval from the government, the program will get under way in September, comprising six horizontal producer wells and one vertical water injector. The partners also plan to drill two appraisal wells to test upside potential in the Ebok West fault block and the field’s D2 southern lobe.
Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources is reviewing the development plan, and negotiations are advanced for production facilities and associated infrastructure.
Ebok was discovered in 1968 with a well that encountered four oil-bearing sands. Appraisal drilling by Afren/Oriental late last year and early this year proved 2P reserves in the fault block 1 and 2 areas of 53 MMbbl. Afren sees upside for a further 99 MMbbl, including 45 MMbbl in Qua Iboe sands.
The company aims to achieve production of 15,000 b/d from the field early next year, rising to 35,000 b/d by end-2010. Oriental’s chairman Alhaji Mohammed Indimi added that Ebok was one of Nigeria’s largest indigenous oilfield development projects to date.
08/11/2009
