Ophir strikes gas with Papa-1 well
Ophir Energy plc (Ophir) announces that the Papa-1 well has made the first Cretaceous gas discovery outboard of the Rufiji Delta in Block 3, offshore Tanzania and is the sixth consecutive discovery by Ophir offshore Tanzania. Papa-1 is located ca. 100km in Block 3, offshore Tanzania; 53km south east of the earlier Pweza-1 discovery. The well spudded on 29th May 2012 in 2,186m of water and was drilled by the drillship ‘Deep Sea Metro 1’ to a total depth of 5,544m subsea in 57 days. Papa-1 represents the first exploration test of Upper Cretaceous Intraslope play outboard of the Rufiji Delta and the first well to be drilled in Block 3. The well was designed to evaluate sandstones of Campanian and Albian age within the structural Papa prospect. Papa-1 encountered an 89m gas bearing column in interbedded, Campanian sandstones. Ophir management's preliminary analysis of the discovery suggests an in place resource of 0.5 - 2.0 TCF. Further detailed petrophysical and core analysis will commence shortly to calibrate the logging data and refine the in place and recoverable resource estimates. The Papa discovery further de-risks the deeper, Upper Cretaceous Intraslope play in Tanzania. Additional resources have now been discovered in the Cretaceous stratigraphy outboard of both the Rovuma and Rufiji Deltas by the Mzia-1 and Papa-1 wells. An update of the in place and recoverable resource estimates from the Mzia and Papa discoveries on the new Cretaceous Intraslope play will follow the ongoing petrophysical analysis. The BG-Ophir Joint Venture's first four discoveries have successfully tested targets of Miocene, Oligocene and Paleocene age in the Tertiary Intraslope Play and are currently estimated to have discovered total recoverable resources of ca. 7 TCF (1167 MMBOE). The fifth discovery, Mzia, and the sixth discovery, Papa, both in the new Upper Cretaceous Intraslope Play are expected to add considerable additional recoverable resource to this total. The ‘Deep Sea Metro 1’ drillship will now be sub-let to Apache for a single well in Block L8, Kenya, adjacent to Ophir's Block L9 (60%), before returning to continue operations with the Ophir-BG Joint Venture in Tanzania. The Joint Venture will recommence drilling in Block 1, Tanzania in October 2012. Next in the sequence will be two step-out exploration and appraisal wells around the 3.4 TCF (567 MMBOE) Jodari discovery for a potential hub for the LNG development in Block 1.