UK-based Tower Resources has announced it has contracted US offshore driller Vantage Drilling International to provide drilling operations at the NJOM-3 well offshore Cameroon. The well is located in Tower’s 100%-owned Thali licence.
The Topaz Driller is a Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 jack-up, which was recently mobilised to Cameroon by NewAge as operator for the Etinde license for two appraisal wells and is currently employed in Gabon, informed a press release from the upstream oil and gas company.
As announced on 1 November 2018, the terms of the contract are confidential, however, the economics are consistent with Tower’s current drilling cost estimates, it said.
The NJOM-3 well will be targeting gross mean contingent (2C) resources of 18 million barrels across the Njonji-1 and Njonji-2 fault blocks located in the south of the Thali licence with an EMV10 of US$118 million, as identified by the recent Oilfield International Limited (“OIL”) Reserves Report announced on the 1 November 2018. Furthermore, the NJOM-3 well is expected to de-risk an additional 20 million barrels of gross mean prospective resources across Njonji South and Njonji South-West.
The objectives of the NJOM-3 well are to test the thickness of reservoirs already identified by NJOM-1 and also to test for other reservoirs which may be present at the new location.
It will also provide key flow-rate data for the Njonji reservoirs from a drill stem test (DST), which would allow reclassification of contingent resources into 2P reserves as well as providing critical reservoir characterisation data for the potential field development strategy.
Tower Resources Chairman & Chief Executive Jeremy Asher said the NJOM-3 well is "just the beginning" of its drilling activity at Thali and that timing for the rig is in line with the company's schedule, including the target of achieving first oil by the end of 2019.