BW Energy brings on stream fourth well off Gabon as Borr rig spuds fifth one

Oslo-listed oil and gas E&P player BW Energy has started production from the fourth well in its multi-well programme offshore Gabon. The company also kicked off drilling activities at the fifth well in this six-well drilling campaign.

The drilling operations on the first well at the Hibiscus/Ruche Phase 1 development in the Dussafu licence offshore Gabon kicked off at the start of the year, following the installation of the BW MaBoMo production facility, risers, and pipelines.

At the beginning of April 2023, the drilling and completion operations on the well were completed and the first oil was achieved a few days later. The second well came online in June 2023, when the firm spudded the third well, which came on stream in July 2023. Afterwards, the firm began drilling the fourth well in its campaign off Gabon.

BW Energy announced the start of production from the fourth well of the Hibiscus/Ruche Phase 1 development on Wednesday, 13 September 2023. According to the company, the well performance is in line with expectations with current production at approximately 6,500 barrels per day.

Furthermore, the DHIBM-6H well was drilled as a horizontal well from the MaBoMo production facility to a total depth of 4,125 metres into Gamba sandstone reservoir at the Hibiscus field. Following completion, Borr Drilling’s Norve jack-up rig commenced drilling operations on the fifth production well, DRM-3H, which will be the first Ruche Gamba well in this drilling campaign.

Carl Krogh Arnet, CEO of BW Energy, commented: “The drilling programme progresses as planned with strong HSE results and robust production rates which support our expectations of successive production growth in Gabon into 2024. We consistently receive well data confirming excellent reservoir quality, with potential positive implications for Hibiscus reserve estimates.”

Woodside explains that the DHIBM-3H and -4H wells have experienced issues with the electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) and investigations into the cause are ongoing. While DHIBM-4H is currently flowing naturally at 2,800 barrels per day, DHIBM-3H is temporarily not producing while the firm continues to work on solutions. Currently, the gross production from the Dussafu license is approximately 26,500 barrels per day after the fourth Hibiscus well came on stream.

The drilling campaign targets four Hibiscus Gamba and two Ruche Gamba wells which are expected to bring the total oil production up to approximately 40,000 barrels per day when all wells are completed. This is expected to be done in early 2024. The oil produced at Hibiscus/Ruche is transported by pipeline to the FPSO BW Adolo for processing and storage before being offloaded to export tankers.

BW Energy is the operator of the Dussafu license with an ownership interest of 73.5 per cent while its partners are: Panoro Energy (17.5 per cent) and Gabon Oil Company (9 per cent). Panoro Energy underlined that the DHIBM-6H production well encountered good quality oil-saturated reservoir sands in the regionally prolific Gamba reservoir.

John Hamilton, CEO of Panoro, remarked: “We have achieved excellent results at each of the four new production wells drilled at the Hibiscus field and with focus now shifting to development of the nearby Ruche field where two production wells are planned, we remain on track to achieve production of 13,000 bopd net to Panoro when all six new Hibiscus/Ruche Phase I wells are onstream.

“The subsurface has consistently met or in some cases exceeded our expectations which is encouraging for potential upside to reserve estimates at the Hibiscus field.”