Trident Energy to Restart Drilling Campaign Off Equatorial Guinea with Noble Venturer Drillship

Trident Energy, has on behalf of the joint venture partners, awarded a contract to Noble Corporation for its Noble Venturer drillship, which is scheduled to restart the infill drilling at the Ceiba Field and Okume Complex offshore Equatorial Guinea.

The Noble Venturer has most recently been engaged in a long-term and successful drilling campaign offshore Ghana which is expected to conclude in late May, after which it will relocate to Equatorial Guinea to recommence drilling operations in June.

The drilling campaign is estimated to last for 150 days, according to Noble Corporation.

The news follows the cancellation of the contract for the Island Drilling’s semi-submersible Island Innovator rig for the Block G drilling campaign by Trident Energy (operator, 40.375%), and its partners Panoro (14.25%), Kosmos Energy (40.375%) and GEPetrol (5.0%) due to safety concerns.

• Trident Terminates Island Innovator Rig Contract Offshore Equatorial Guinea

Owing to limitations arising from the shallower water depth at one of the planned infill well locations, the drilling campaign with the Noble Venturer drillship will now comprise of two infill wells, the partners informed.

The third infill well will be deferred as part of a potential future drilling campaign.

The Noble Venturer drill ship has also been contracted to drill the Kosmos Energy-operated Akeng Deep infrastructure led exploration (ILX) well in Block S once the two Block G infill wells have been drilled and completed.

The Akeng Deep ILX well is intended to test a play in the Albian, targeting an estimated gross mean resource of around 180 million barrels of oil in close proximity to existing infrastructure at Block G.

Panoro holds a 12% interest in Block S, with other partners being GEPetrol and Trident Energy.

“We are very pleased to have secured the high-specification Noble Venturer drill ship to recommence the infill drilling campaign at Block G and also test the high-impact Akeng Deep ILX prospect at Block S which, if successful, can open a new play fairway with potentially very positive read across to the adjacent Block EG-01 which Panoro operates,” said John Hamilton, CEO of Panoro.