Afren Strikes Oil Offshore Nigeria

Afren plc announces that the Okoro East exploration well, offshore south east Nigeria, has made a new oil discovery having encountered 549 ft true vertical thickness (TVT) of net oil pay and 41 ft of net gas pay in excellent quality reservoir sands.

The well result represents a successful start to Afren’s 2012 exploration campaign that will see the Company participate in multiple wells across each of its core areas.

The Okoro East exploration well was spudded on 18 December 2011 and reached a total measured depth of 8,751 ft (8,016 ft true vertical depth), with the Transocean Adriatic lX jack-up drilling rig. The well has successfully encountered oil in the Tertiary reservoir sands equivalent to those that have been developed and are in production at the Okoro main field, in addition to the deeper previously unexplored reservoirs. The discovery of significant pay in the previously unexplored deeper zones opens up further prospectivity at similar levels on the main Okoro field and elsewhere on the block.

Logging operations have been completed and the well is now being prepared for testing, after which Afren and its partner Amni will determine the optimal development of the discovery.

Osman Shahenshah, Chief Executive of Afren, commented: “We are delighted to have made a new oil discovery offshore south east Nigeria in Afren’s core producing area. The proximity of Okoro East to the existing producing Okoro field means that we are well positioned to efficiently monetise this discovery, both in terms of our detailed understanding of the subsurface and proximity to existing infrastructure. The well also opens up additional prospectivity on the block and is a very successful start to our 2012 exploration campaign. With the JS-2 exploration well currently drilling ahead in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, we look forward next to spudding the Nunya-1x (Cuda-2) exploration well offshore Ghana later this  month.”

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Offshore Energy Today Staff, January 17, 2012; Image: Afren Plc