Third well comes online as Borr rig starts drilling fourth one off Gabon

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

The drilling operations on the first well at the Hibiscus/Ruche Phase 1 development in the Dussafu licence offshore Gabon began 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 in this drilling campaign.

In an update on Thursday, 20 July 2023, BW Energy revealed that the third well in a six-well production drilling campaign at the Hibiscus/Ruche Phase 1 development was brought on stream. The well performance is in line with expectations with current production at approximately 6,000 barrels per day. 

According to the company, the DHIBM-5H well was drilled as a horizontal well from the BW MaBoMo production facility to a total depth of 4,245 metres into Gamba sandstone reservoir at the Hibiscus field. Following completion, Borr Drilling’s Norve jack-up rig started drilling operations on the fourth production well (DHIBM-6H). 

Carl Krogh Arnet, the CEO of BW Energy, commented: “I would like to compliment the drilling team for their efficient delivery of the third Hibiscus production well while extending our excellent HSE performance. We continue to see robust production rates and receive well data that confirms excellent reservoir quality. This supports our expectations for continued successive production growth in Gabon through 2023 and into early 2024 as we complete the drilling programme.”

Located approximately 20 kilometres northwest of the Tortue field, BW Energy’s Hibiscus/Ruche development project off Gabon targets the Hibiscus and Ruche fields. Furthermore, 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 in early 2024.

The oil produced at Hibiscus/Ruche is transported by pipeline to the FPSO BW Adolo for processing and storage before offloading 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).

John Hamilton, CEO of Panoro, remarked: “The completion of the third Hibiscus well is another significant step forward in our organic growth plan, keeping us on track to achieve production of 13,000 bopd net to Panoro when all six new Hibiscus Ruche Phase I wells are onstream.” 

This announcement comes on the heels of BW Energy’s confirmation about the start-up of the new gas lift compressor on the FPSO BW Adolo.

This compressor is the second GLC unit installed on the FPSO to support production from the six Tortue wells. Once fully operational it is expected to add approximately 3,000 barrels per day of production.