Tullow abandons wells in Mozambique, French Guiana

23rd Jul 2013 07:03

Tullow Oil has plugged and abandoned an exploration well offshore Mozambique and another in French Guiana, an update on Tuesday morning has shown. The Cachalote-1 well, the first well in Area 2 offshore Mozambique, did discover a good quality gas-bearing sandstones in an Upper Cretaceous deepwater channel system, but initial tests show that is "unlikely to be commercial on a standalone basis". The well was then sidetracked to target older sandstones but they were not of reservoir quality.Tullow has a 25% interest in Area 2 and Area 5 in the Romuva Basin, operated by Statoil who controls a 40% stake.Meanwhile, the GM-ES-4 well on the Guyana Maritime licence, French Guiana, found no indications of hydrocarbons in both the primary and secondary reservoir objectives of the Cebus prospect. Tullow owns 27.5% of the licence, while partner Shell holds a 45% stake. UK-listed peers Northern Petroleum and Wessex Exploration also own small interests in the licence through their joint venture Northpet."Discovering gas outboard on the vast Ibo High through drilling Cachalote-1 is encouraging although this is not a standalone commercial discovery. The potential for discovering oil in this region remains after we encountered wet gas shows in the deeper sidetrack. We will integrate this valuable data into our regional model to improve our chances of unlocking the oil play potential offshore Mozambique," said Exploration Director Angus McCoss."The Cebus-1 well was an ambitious wildcat exploration well which did not encounter hydrocarbons. The current French Guiana campaign now concludes with the GM-ES-5 well. This well will be located on the Cingulata fan with the objective of determining the oil water contact of the Zaedyus-1 discovery by measuring the pressure in the water-leg as well as gathering geological data from deeper unpenetrated sections."