Tullow Oil abandons 'dry hole' onshore Ethiopia

9th Dec 2013 07:12

Oil giant Tullow has plugged and abandoned the Tultule-1 wildcat well onshore Ethiopia after it failed to encounter oil.The well, in which Tullow owns a 50% interest along with partners Africa Oil (30%) and Marathon (20%), is located in the South Omo block and was targeting a reservoir section similar to the sands drilled in the nearby Sabisa-1 well where oil was found. However, these sands were not penetrated in Tultule-1, the company said.While gas shows confirmed the presence of a hydrocarbon source in the region, Tultule-1 "will be plugged and abandoned as a dry hole" after reaching a total depth of 2,101 metres.The company said that the OGEC rig is now moving on to the Chew Bahir basin of the South Omo block, where data has shown a number of "exciting new prospects, "some of which have encouraging seismic amplitude anomalies".BC