Eni makes light oil discovery offshore Angola

Italian oil company Eni has made a new light oil discovery in Block 15/06, in Angola’s deep offshore. The well was drilled on the Ndungu exploration prospect.

According to Eni’s statement on Tuesday, the new discovery is estimated to contain up to 250 million barrels of light oil in place, with further upside.

The Ndungu-1 NFW well is located a few kilometres from Eni’s West Hub facilities, and has been drilled by the Poseidon drillship in a water depth of 1076 meters and reached a total depth of 4050 meters.

The Poseidon drillship was previously owned by Ocean Rig until the driller was acquired by Transocean in December 2018. The drillship started working for Eni in Angola in November last year following a drilling campaign in Namibia where it had drilled for Chariot and Tullow. Eni hired the Poseidon for a firm four-well program.

Eni said that the Ndungu-1 NFW proved a single oil column of about 65 meters with 45 meters of net pay of high quality oil (35° API) contained in Oligocene sandstones with excellent petrophysical properties. The result of the intensive data collection indicates a production capacity in excess of 10,000 barrels of oil per day.

Ndungu is the first significant oil discovery in Angola inside an already existing Development Area. It certifies the concrete validity of the recent legislation, promoted through the Presidential Legislative Decree No. 5/18 of 18 May 2018, which defines a favourable legal framework on additional exploration activities within existing Development Areas.

Being located about 2 km from the Mpungi field, the new discovery can be fast-tracked to production due to the proximity to the subsea production system. Production will be routed to the N’goma FPSO, therefore extending the West Hub’s production plateau, Eni explained.

Ndungu is the fourth discovery of commercial nature since the Block 15/06 Joint Venture re-launched its exploration campaign in mid-2018. It follows the discoveries of Kalimba, Afoxé and Agogo; the four discoveries altogether already estimated to contain up to 1.4 Billion barrels of light oil in place. The appraisal phase of these discoveries will target their additional upside.

To remind, Eni announced “a major oil discovery” in Block 15/06, in the Agogo exploration prospect, in Angola’s deepwater in March 2019.

Eni said that these important discoveries further demonstrate the upside potential of the block and the effectiveness of the proprietary technologies that Eni used and will use to explore Block 15/06.

The Block 15/06 Joint Venture, composed by Eni (operator, 36.8421%), Sonangol P&P (36.8421%) and SSI Fifteen Limited (26.3158%), will work to fast track its development.