Cameroon: Tower hires geotechnical drillship ahead of NJOM-3 spud

Oil company Tower Resources has signed a contract with Geoquip Marine Operations for a survey over its Thali block in Cameroon, ahead of the drilling operations start.

Under the contract, Geoquip will deploy a geotechnical drillship – used for offshore geotechnical site investigations in shallow waters – at the intended NJOM-3 well location Thali license.

According to Tower, the MV Investigator vessel will arrive in Cameroon between November 15 and December 30, 2019, subject to all relevant permits prior to mobilization.

The work will comprise three boreholes, each with cone penetration testing (continuous PCPT), and is a necessary prerequisite to COSL drilling the NJOM-3 well in line with the LOI which has already been signed with COSL as disclosed in August 2019. The cost of the survey is in line with the budget previously anticipated, and the time required for the work is approximately 7-10 days on site, plus any off-site testing and report preparation.

Jeremy Asher, Chairman, and CEO, commented: “We are looking forward to getting the site survey underway, which should be the final operational step before commencing drilling operations at Njonji. We are still awaiting the formal extension from the Ministry, but we are confident that this will be in place in good time for the survey.”

As previously reported Tower initially planned to drill the NJOM3 well in May, using the Vantage Drilling-owned Topaz Driller jack-up rig. Come May and Tower re-scheduled the well drilling for July to allow sufficient time for the additional site preparation work to be completed.

In an update in June, Tower said the well would be spud in 3Q 2019. Based on Tower’s Friday announcement, the drilling might be put off for 2020.

Related: Vantage jack-up released as Tower changes rig for Cameroon well

To remind, the company in May said it had company received additional data from the original previous operator Total’s wells at NJOM1 (drilled in 2008) and NJOM2, which indicated that further site preparation work would be required before the drilling rig for the NJOM-3 well is moved to site.

Tower at the time said it did not anticipate any difficulty in proceeding with the well, despite the fact that the extension to the first Exploration Period of the company’s Production Sharing Contract (PSC) was set to expire on September 14, 2019.

NJOM3 well

The NJOM3 well is planned to be drilled to a total depth of 1,100 meters intersecting at least three reservoir zones already identified by the NJOM1B and NJOM2 discovery wells drilled on the Njonji structure by the previous operator Total.

The well is designed to confirm the greater reservoir thicknesses observed on the reprocessed 3D seismic in the up-dip area of the structure, and also evaluate additional reservoirs that were not present in the areas where Total’s wells are located.

The NJOM3 well is designed to supplement Total’s well data with a suite of measurement and logging tools and drill stem test (DST) flows to surface. The company’s intention is then to suspend the well with a view to subsequent completion as one of four initial production wells on the structure.

This first phase of development envisaged by the Reserve Report, aiming to exploit the 2C contingent resources (Pmean 18 million barrels oil, gross) already identified in the structure, aims to provide significant production to Tower in 2020.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

Spotted a typo? Have something more to add to the story? Maybe a nice photo? Contact our editorial team via email.

Also, if you’re interested in showcasing your company, product, or technology on Offshore Energy Today, please contact us via our advertising form, where you can also see our media kit.