Soco International, an oil and gas exploration and production company, has announced that the Baobab Marine-1 (BABM-1) commitment well started drilling on February 5, 2016 in the Mer Profonde Sud Block, located in the Lower Congo Basin, offshore Congo.
Soco is the operator of the block with 60% interest and its project partners are PARC and SNPC with 25% and 15% interest, respectively. Soco is carrying 100% of the expected c.$25-30 million well cost.
According to the oil company, the BABM-1 well, to be drilled on the RR Prospect, is targeting stacked early Miocene channel complexes that are mappable in the seismic data, delineated by stratal discontinuities and variations in seismic amplitudes.
Previous exploration drilling targeted different types of prospects, and the BABM-1 well is unique relative to all wells in and near the Block, Soco said. Two wells on adjacent blocks along trend provide critical support to confirm that this wildcat tests an opportunity consistent with the known habitat of oil in the region, the company explained. The BABM-1 well targets gross P50 prospective recoverable resource of c.330 million barrels of oil.
The well will be drilled by the ultra-deepwater drillship Noble Globetrotter II and, according to Soco, it is expected to take 25 to 35 days, with a planned depth of approximately 3,400 metres below mean sea level.