Symposium examines West Africa oil sources

Regional tectonics that broke Africa and South America apart controlled both the formation of oil-trapping structures and the development of sedimentary basins that now produce 11% of the world's oil production, according to research by several presenters at the Africa: New Plays – New Perspectives symposium in Houston. The two-day symposium that began yesterday is sponsored by the Houston Geological Society and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain.

Ronald Charpentier of the US Geological Survey gave an overview of Africa's potential from the USGS World Petroleum Assessment 2000. Africa has discovered oil volumes of 23.85 Bbbl and natural gas volumes are estimated to be 74.8 tcf. Most of Africa's hydrocarbon resource is held in the Western-Central Coastal Province and in the Niger Delta Province. Eighty percent of Africa's discovered reserves are offshore.

ConocoPhillips presented new information from the Coco Marin-1 well drilled in 2002. The Douala Basin, offshore Cameroon has been moderately explored and was considered a gas-prone basin. The Coco well proved this perception false when it produced 3,000 bopd with 1.8 MMcfd. The well tested a stratigraphic trap formed by a large channel sand complex near the toe of the continental slope. The well found quality sands in an updip position that were sealed by pinch-outs. ConocoPhillips has identified 10 similar channels on their PH-77 block and expects to drill more wells.

09/04/03