Cairn Energy has discovered hydrocarbons at its SNE North-1 wildcat well offshore Senegal, as well as oil in a deeper secondary objective, marking the end to the company’s five-well drilling campaign for the year.
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Map of the SNE field, from Cairn. |
SNE North-1 is 90km off Senegal in the Sangomar Deep Offshore block in 900m water depth. The exploration well, which reached a total depth of 2837m, is about 15km north of the SNE-1 discovery well.
Across three intervals, Cairn encountered 24m of gross hydrocarbon column. In the primary objective, 11m of net condensate and gas in a high quality reservoir was found. In the deeper secondary objective, Cairn hit 4m of oil in good quality reservoir, in a separate accumulation, with a lighter type of 35° API oil compared to the SNE field.
Additional work is being undertaken to establish the potential commerciality of this discovery and to integrate the results with the block wide data gathered to date. The well result has positive implications for further exploration potential to the north along the structural trend containing the SNE field, says partner FAR Ltd.
The well had an 80 MMbbl pre-drill estimate and could be a potential subsea tieback, points out GMP Research.
Cairn and its partners are now reviewing the potential for further exploration drilling next year within the Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep (RSSD) production sharing contract area.
"The SNE North well results are encouraging in terms of further prospectivity and implications for the full block potential offshore Senegal,” says Simon Thomson, CEO of Cairn Energy.
The Stena DrillMAX rig will now plug and abandon the well before being released. The well was the final well in five-well 2017 drilling campaign, and the 11th successful well drilled into the RSSD permit.
“The SNE North-1 well results are very encouraging for the structural trend to the north of the SNE field and the broader exploration potential of our Senegal permit and our other blocks in the region. The operator is to be commended for delivering a safe and successful drilling program in Senegal this year and we look forward to now progressing the SNE field development with our joint venture partners,” says FAR Managing Director Cath Norman.
The JV is expected to provide an updated independently certified assessment of the SNE field contingent resources and development plans for the SNE field in the coming weeks.
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