Bowleven Announces Drilling Success, Offshore Cameroon

Bowleven Announces Drilling Success, Offshore Cameroon

Bowleven, the West Africa focused oil and gas exploration group traded on AIM, on Friday (October 14) announced the discovery of oil at the Sapele-3 exploration well drilling in the Douala Basin, offshore Cameroon.

Sapele-3 drilling update

The Sapele-3 well is located circa 16 kilometers North West of Sapele-1 and circa thirteen kilometers North West of the D-lr wells. The well is drilling in water depths of approximately 30 meters.

The well was initially designed to target the shallower Miocene play including the reservoir interval previously encountered at Dl-r. Due to optimised well design it has also been possible to deepen the well into what is the Deep Omicron  equivalent interval encountered with previous Sapele wells.

Bowleven, as operator, provides updates for the reservoir intervals encountered at Sapele-3 below:

Deep Omicron interval (oil)

The well has encountered 11 meters of independently log evaluated hydrocarbon pay in high quality sandstone reservoirs within the Deep Omicron stratigraphic interval intersected by previous Sapele wells. In addition, a further 24 meters of  net sand was encountered, of which up to 11 meters is currently interpreted as having either a high residual hydrocarbon or a hydrocarbon bearing response from logs. Further evaluation to determine whether this is pay or not is pending.

Wireline logs indicate that the majority of reservoir has been encountered within two distinct packages within the upper part of the Deep Omicron interval that can be correlated to the earlier Sapele discovery wells. The logs also indicate high  net to gross ratios through these packages.

As the well is only two thirds of the way through the Deep Omicron interval and has encountered excellent quality oil bearing reservoir at current total depth (TD), the intention is to recommence drilling to the base of Deep Omicron. The  presence of light oil at current TD has been confirmed by sampling. Testing plans will be assessed on reaching final TD. The confirmed presence of oil in the Deep Omicron interval at Sapele-3, 16 kilometers from the original Deep Omicron discovery at Sapele-1, extends the currently mapped Deep Omicron fairway significantly Northwards into MLHP-6. Consequently a significant increase in current Deep Omicron in-place volumetrics is anticipated.

Miocene interval

At the shallower Miocene (Dl-r) equivalent interval target, a 7 meter high quality sandstone was encountered with a I meter gas-condensate column. The extent and size of the discovery is worthv of further evaluation.

Kevin Hart, Chief Executive of Bowleven plc commented:

“We are excited with results so far at Sapele-3. The Deep Omicron interval continues to deliver and the confirmed presence of oil and good quality reservoir at this location further emphasises the significance of this play within the Douala  Basin. All four Sapele wells drilled have now encountered oil within the Deep Omicron interval, thus reinforcing the geological model and highlighting the overall development and exploration potential of the fairway. This well has also now  shown that the Deep Omicron interval extends considerably beyond the currently mapped area which has significant implications in terms of both volumetrics and prospectivity potential on both block MLHP-5 and MLHP-6. In addition, the gas condensate discovery at the Dl-r interval is promising and warrants further evaluation.

The results at Sapele-3 represent another step towards our overarching strategy of converting resources to reserves whilst highlighting the extensive exploration potential in the basin. We look forward with eager anticipation to the further drilling planned at Sapele-3.”

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Source: Bowleven, October 17, 2011