E&P Notes (May 2022)
Authors: JPT staff _ 
Published: July 2022

Shell Discovers More Oil Off Namibia

Shell announced its oil discovery off Namibia in January and was “very encouraged by the early results” from the Graff-1 exploration well in the country’s Orange Basin, which “established a working petroleum system and the presence of light oil.”

Researchers at Wood Mackenzie believe the find could hold upward of 700 million BOE. Shell is currently drilling a second well at La Rona, an aggressive stepout which is likely to be appraising the discovery prior to confirmation of a potential commercial development.

Shell operates the Graff find with a 45% interest. Partners in the discovery are QatarEnergy (45%) and NAMCOR (10%).

Less than a month after Graff was announced, TotalEnergies reported that it had made a significant discovery of light oil with associated gas on the Venus prospect, in Block 2913B in the Orange Basin. The Venus 1-X well encountered around 84 m of net oil pay in a Lower Cretaceous reservoir. No resource estimates have been officially released.

First Oil Achieved at King’s Quay in the GOM

Murphy Oil has achieved first oil from the Khaleesi, Mormont, and Samurai field development project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The field trio is being developed subsea and tied back to the Murphy-operated King’s Quay floating production system (FPS), designed to process 85,000 B/D of oil and 100 MMcf/D of natural gas.

The project comprises the Khaleesi/Mormont fields in Green Canyon Blocks 389 and 478, respectively, and the Samurai field, located in Green Canyon Block 432. Completions operations are ongoing for the remaining five wells in the seven-well project.

Murphy operates the King’s Quay FPS and associated export lateral pipelines, which are owned 50% by an affiliate of Third Coast Infrastructure and 50% by entities managed by Ridgewood Energy, including ILX Holdings III LLC.

Neptune Energy Ramps Up Gas Production From Duva Field

Neptune Energy and its partners will be doubling gas production from the Duva field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, supporting increased supplies to the UK and Europe. The partnership has worked closely with the Norwegian authorities to identify measures to help meet gas demand in Europe. Gas production from the field was planned to increase by 6,500 BOE/D from the first half of April.

Duva is a subsea installation with three oil producers and one gas producer, tied back to the Neptune Energy-operated Gjøa semisubmersible platform. The gas is transported by pipeline to the UK’s St Fergus gas terminal.

Duva’s overall production currently stands at 30,000 BOE/D, of which 6,500 BOE/D is natural gas. Under the newly agreed measures, daily gas production will double to 13,000 BOE/D for an initial 4–8 months.

Around 70% of Neptune Energy’s Norwegian production is gas, and the company is investigating opportunities to ramp up gas production from other fields within its portfolio.

Duva license partners include operator Neptune Energy (30%), INPEX Idemitsu (30%), PGNiG Upstream Norway (30%), and Sval Energi (10%).

New Oil Discovery Near Troll and Fram Area of the North Sea

Equinor has once again discovered oil and gas close to the Troll and Fram area—this time with its Kveikje well. The find came on the operator’s 293 B production license. The company estimates the size of the discovery is between 25–50 million bbl of recoverable oil equivalent.

Temporarily called Kveikje, this is the sixth discovery in this area since 2019. Up to more than 300 million BOE were proven in the five former discoveries. Equinor is considering the development as a tieback to the Troll B or C platform.

There were several drilling targets in the exploration well. After Kveikje was discovered, drilling continued to the next target in the upper part of the Cretaceous stratigraphic sequence. Smaller deposits of petroleum were discovered but are considered noncommercial. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The well was drilled by semisubmersible Deepsea Stavanger. Plans call for Equinor to drill another exploration well in this area this year.

The 293 B license owners are Equinor (51%), DNO (29%), Idemitsu (10%), and Longboat Energy (10%).

W&T Offshore Completes Bolt-On Acquisition in the GOM

W&T Offshore has acquired the remaining working interests in the oil- and gas-producing properties at Ship Shoal 230, South Marsh Island 27/Vermilion 191, and South Marsh Island 73 fields for $17.5 million in cash. The initial interest was purchased earlier this year from an undisclosed private seller. The transaction had an effective date and closing date of 1 April and was paid using cash on hand.

The deal adds internally estimated proved reserves of 1.4 million BOE (70% oil) and proved and probable, or 2P, reserves of 2 million BOE (75% oil) as of year-end 2021. The properties carry an estimated net sales rate of about 900 BOE/D (~80% oil). The acquisition also adds an average of 20% working interest in more than 50 gross producing wells currently operated by the company across three shallow-water fields and provides additional opportunities for future drilling.

ExxonMobil Comes Up Empty on Cutthroat Prospect in Brazil

Prospect partner Murphy Oil said it and operator ExxonMobil came away with disappointing results from their Cutthroat-1 exploration well in Block SEAL-M-428 in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin offshore Brazil. While the presence of hydrocarbons was not found, the partner group said it will continue to integrate the exploration well data into its regional subsurface interpretation efforts to better understand the exploration potential of its deepwater blocks located in the basin.

Cutthroat-1 was located nearly 90 km offshore Brazil and was drilled in 3094 m of water by the Seadrill West Saturn drillship. It is one of multiple prospects that the partner group has mapped in the basin.

ExxonMobil is the operator and holds 50% working interest in nine offshore SEAL blocks that span more than 6800 km2. Enauta Energia and Murphy Oil each hold a 30% working interest.

Eni Upgrades Ndungu Field Resources Off Angola

Eni has boosted its reserves base for the Ndungu field in the West Hub of Block 15/06 following the results of an initial well. The Ndungu 2 appraisal well was drilled 5 km away from Ndungu 1 and encountered 40 m of net oil pay in the Lower Oligocene reservoirs with good petrophysical properties confirming the hydraulic communication with the discovery well.

The preliminary data collected on Ndungu 2 allows Eni to boost the field resources to between 800 million and 1 billion BOE in place from the initial estimates of 250–300 million BOE following the discovery well. The upgrade makes Ndungu, together with Agogo, the largest accumulation discovered in Block 15/06 since the block award.

The early production phase of Ndungu started in February through one producer well, and a second producer well is expected in the fourth quarter of 2022, maximizing the utilization of existing facilities in the West Hub.

Ndungu field development will now be upgraded to reflect the increase of the resource base, following a phased approach to uncap the overall potential initially contributing to extend and increase the plateau of the Ngoma—a 100,000 B/D, zero-discharge and zero-process-flaring FPSO.

Block 15/06 is operated by Eni Angola with a 36.84% share. Sonangol Pesquisa e Produção holds 36.84% and SSI Fifteen Ltd., 26.32%.

ExxonMobil Strikes Gas Off Cyprus

The Cyprus energy ministry confirmed a reservoir of high-quality gas was encountered by the ExxonMobil-led Glaucus-2 appraisal well. The drilling of the well was conducted in the area known as Block 10 in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that has been challenged by Turkey. The ministry said that operations in the EEZ included production testing.

“The consortium will proceed with a detailed analysis and evaluation of the data collected to more accurately determine the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the reservoir, as well as potential development and commercialization of the discoveries,” the ministry said in a statement.

Cyprus previously estimated gas resources in the reservoir of between 5 and 8 Tcf when the discovery from the Glaucus-1 well was announced in 2019. ExxonMobil and Block 10 partner Qatar Petroleum began drilling the Glaucus-2 well using drillship Stena Forth in December 2021.

ExxonMobil is the operator and holds a 60% interest in Block 10. Qatar Petroleum International Upstream OPC holds the remaining 40% stake.

Eni, Sonatrach Make Oil Hit in Algerian Desert

Eni and Sonatrach made a significant oil and gas discovery in the Zemlet el Arbi concession located in the Berkine North Basin in the Algerian desert. The concession is operated by a joint venture between Eni (49%) and Sonatrach (51%). Preliminary estimates of the size of the discovery are around 140 million bbl of oil in place.

The exploratory well that led to the discovery has been drilled on the HDLE exploration prospect, about 15 km from the processing facilities of Bir Rebaa North field. HDLE-1 discovered light oil in the Triassic sandstones of the Tagi formation confirming 26 m of net pay. During a production test, the well delivered 7,000 BOPD and 5 MMcf/D of associated gas. The HDLE-1 well is the first well of the new exploration campaign which will include the drilling of five wells in the Berkine North Basin.

The discovery will be appraised by the followup HDLE-2 well to confirm the additional potential of the structure extending in the adjacent Sif Fatima 2 concession operated by an Eni-Sonatrach JV (50–50%).

In parallel with the appraisal program, Eni and Sonatrach will perform studies and analyses to accelerate the production phase of the new discovery through a fast-tracked development with startup planned for the third quarter of 2022.

Eni has been present in Algeria since 1981 where it operates several concessions. The company produces about 95,000 BOE/D from the country.

Neptune Energy Confirms Hydrocarbons at Hamlet

Neptune Energy struck hydrocarbons at its Hamlet exploration well in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The find is located within the Gjøa license (PL153). It has yet to be confirmed if commercial volumes of oil and gas are present.

A contingent sidetrack may be drilled to further define the extent of the discovery.

Located 58 km west of Florø, Norway, at a water depth of 358 m, Hamlet is within one of Neptune’s core areas and close to existing infrastructure. The Hamlet test was drilled by the Odjfell semisubmersible Deepsea Yantai.

Partners in the find include operator Neptune Energy (30%), Petoro (30%), Wintershall Dea (28%), and OKEA (12%).