Kosmos Energy's Lamantin-1 exploration well on Block C-12 offshore Mauritania has disappointed.
The well, drilled in 2200m water depth and to a total depth of 5150m, hit a water bearing reservoir with residual hydrocarbons. It is thought the failure to find oil in the reservoir was due to a lack of a trap.
Kosmos will now plug and abandon the well and move to the Requin Tigre prospect offshore Senegal.
The Requin Tigre prospect is a Cenomanian/Albian base of slope fan supplied from the proven Senegal River system, and is about 150mk offshore, 60km west of the Tortue discovery, and 80km north of the Yakaar discovery in about 3100m water depth. It is estimated that drilling will take approximately 60 days.
The Lamantin-1 well had been designed to evaluate a previously untested Lower Campanian base of slope fan supplied from the Nouakchott River system, trapped in a combination structural-stratigraphic feature, and charged from underlying, oil-prone Cenomanian/Turonian and Albian source rocks.
Andrew G. Inglis, Kosmos' chairman and chief executive officer, said: “We are still in the early stages of exploring this newly emerging basin and our forward drilling program remains unchanged given the independent nature of the prospects. The drillship will now proceed as planned to test the independent Requin Tigre (Tiger Shark) prospect offshore Senegal, which will be followed by two high-impact oil tests offshore Suriname in mid-2018.”
Kosmos holds rights in the C-6, C-8, C-12, C-13, and C-18 contract areas under production sharing contracts with the Government of Mauritania’s Société Mauritanienne Des Hydrocarbures et de Patrimoine Minier (SMHPM). The blocks combined acreage is more than 40,000sq km with water depth ranging from 100m to 3000m.
Kosmos is the exploration operator of Block C-12 with 28 percent equity and is joined by its partners BP (62%) and SMHPM (10%).