Ophir prepares for first deepwater well offshore Ghana
Offshore staff
LONDON– Ophir Energy has contracted the drillship Stena DrillMAX to drill the Starfish prospect in the Accra block offshore Ghana.
Starfish-1, due to spud in June, will be drilled in a water depth of 1,360 m (4,462 ft). The well is designed to test a stratigraphic onlap trap east of Kosmos and Tullow’s majorJubilee-area discoveries.
Ophir estimates Starfish’s mean prospective resources at 292 MMboe with a 20% chance of exploration success.
Offshore Tanzania, the company continues its drilling program with partner and operator BG Group.
After completing a testing program on the deepwaterJodari and Mzia gas discoveries, the drillship Deep Sea Metro 1 will next drill the Ngisi prospect in block 4, which could hold in-place resources of 1.3 tcf (37 bcm).
Ngisi-1 will be drilled with two deviated well paths, both testing separate compartments of the Ngisi prospect and the deeper Chewa discovery. Ophir hopes a success will increase mean recoverable resources of the Chewa-Pweza-Ngisi hub to 4.1 tcf (116 bcm), providing sufficient reserves for a gas development on block 4.
The partners drilled theirfirst deviated well off Tanzania last December on Jodari. These type of wells should reduce field development costs, Ophir said.
Ngisi-1will be the final well drilled byDeepsea Metro 1 before its contract expires in early June.
The partners continue to interpret the block 1 outboard Kusini 3D survey. Recently received offset stack data are providing additional information that could alter future drilling priorities. They plan to secure a rig to re-start their exploration program in 3Q 2013.
4/11/2013