Italy’s Eni has completed the production test on the Minsala Marine 1 NFW, located in the Marine XII Block offshore Congo, 35 kilometers from the shoreline and 12 kilometers from the recent Nené Marine discovery.
Eni made an oil discovery in the Minsala Marine exploration prospect in October this year. Eni says that during the production test the well delivered in natural flow in excess of 5,000 barrels of oil per day and 14 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from an opened section of 37 meters out of the 420 meters oil column identified in the discovery. The oil quality is 41 degrees API.
Eni says that its preliminary estimate of the potential of Minsala Marine discovery is about 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place, of which 80% is oil. The company has scheduled an appraisal plan for the discovery and has begun studying the commercial development of its significant hydrocarbons reserves.
“The production test results has exceeded expectations and enables us to plan a fast commercial development of the important Minsala Marine find, similarly to what had been done at Nene’ Marine,” said Claudio Descalzi , CEO of Eni.
There have been three discoveries in the Marine XII permit: Minsala Marine, Litchjendily Marine and Nené Marine. According to Eni, these are all located in conventional waters close to existing infrastructure and can therefore be brought into production shortly and at competitive costs.
Eni through its own subsidiary Eni Congo SA is Operator of Marine XII with a 65% share stake. Eni has been operating in Congo since 1968 and currently produces approximately 110,000 barrels of oil per day of equity production.
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