HRT find offshore Namibia

May 21, 2013

A subsidiary of Brazil-based explorer HRT said its first exploration well offshore Namibia has found oil - but not in commercial volumes.

HRT Walvis Petroleum said the well, Wingat-1 2212/07/1 in PEL-23, spudded on March 25, was drilled in water about 1,000m deep using the semi-submersible Transocean Marianasand.

The main objective of the well was to test the resource potential of the Albian-age carbonate platform, which was penetrated on targeted depth, but the reservoir quality is much less-developed than expected.

Data from the well will be used to drill the Murombe prospect, about 15 km west of Wingat-1. The Murombe well will test a Cretaceous basin-floor fan and is expected to spud later in May, and is second of a three-well drilling campaign in Namibia.

"We are pleased with Wingat-1 overall results," said Milton Romeu Franke, CEO of HRT. "The confirmation of high-quality source rocks that are clearly in the oil-generation window, coupled with the IFA formation testing, which recovered light-oil, were major achievements."

He said the Wingat find, and recovery of the first oil offshore Namibia, made HRT confident of its efforts in the country.

The Wingat well was initially planned to be drilled to 4127m, but in order to test the turbidite reservoirs and sample the main source rock, the consortium decided to drill a final TD of 5000m, says HRT. "This decision was also supported by the increasing concentrations of hydrocarbon shows present in the well below 1500m.

HRT identified two well-developed source rocks. The well also encountered several thin-bedded, sandy reservoirs saturated withn oil. HRT collected four 450cc samples of this oil and these samples tested as light oil with minimal contamination. No water-bearing zones were identified in the drilled section. The well is currently in the process of being plugged and abandoned.

"The fact that the source rock is in the oil window and generating liquid hydrocarbons of excellent quality confirms the source potential of the basin. As such, the results of Wingat-1well provide important information that will help calibrate and guide HRT’s next exploration steps. These source rocks can charge reservoir intervals of other prospects identified in the license, including the Murombe prospect."

HRT is the operator of 10 blocks offshore Namibia, which are contained in four petroleum licences. Portugal's GALP Energia, with a 14% participating interest, is HRT’s partner in the first three wells of the current exploration campaign.