Woodside continues Mauritania exploration

Australia's Woodside spudded the Dorade-1 well in PSC block C2 offshore Mauritania on Sept. 12, 2004. Dorade-1 is in 1,670 m of water 165 km southwest of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, and 85 km south of the Chinguetti field.

Smedvig Offshore'sWest Navigator drillship will drill and case the top hole section of the well. The bottom hole will be drilled at a later date by Stena Drilling's Stena Tay semisubmersible, the second rig working on the Mauritania program.

TheStena Tay is expected to arrive Sept. 15 to drill the Chinguetti-8 water injection well before beginning work on the exploration program.

The 2004/05 drilling program will include wells in three production sharing contract areas, including PSC A, PSC B, and PSC C2.

9/14/04