Kosmos Energy has completed drilling the Requin Tigre-1 exploration well located in Senegal’s Saint Louis Offshore Profond block but failed to find hydrocarbons.
The Requin Tigre-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 5,200 meters with the Ensco DS 12 drillship, formerly known as Atwood Achiever.
It was designed to evaluate Cenomanian and Albian reservoirs in a structural-stratigraphic trap, charged from an underlying Neocomian-Valanginian source kitchen.
The prospect was fully tested but did not encounter hydrocarbons, Kosmos informed on Monday. According to the company, post-well analysis is currently ongoing to determine the reasons it was unsuccessful.
“The exploration insights from the well, together with our existing knowledge will provide competitive advantage, and meaningfully advance our working understanding of the deepwater Cretaceous petroleum systems offshore Mauritania and Senegal where we believe there is substantial remaining prospectivity in the company’s large acreage position,” said Kosmos.
Andrew G. Inglis , chairman and chief executive officer, commented: “With each exploration well drilled, we deepen our understanding of this newly emerging basin, further refining our geologic model and geophysical tools. Requin Tigre was the last well in our second phase of exploration of the deepwater Cretaceous petroleum systems offshore Mauritania and Senegal targeting large basin floor fan structures.
Inglis continued: “We have delivered one success (Yakaar) in four wells in this second phase program, following three successes in three wells (Tortue, Marsouin, Teranga) in the first phase program targeting inboard structures on the slope. Overall we have discovered gross resource of 40 trillion cubic feet, at a net cost of $0.20 per barrel of oil equivalent benefiting from the partner carry, and have created the potential for two world scale LNG hubs. We will rigorously evaluate our large inventory of prospects across Mauritania and Senegal ahead of the next phase of exploration offshore the two countries.”
Kosmos was fully carried on the cost of the Requin Tigre well. The drillship will proceed as planned to test two oil prospects offshore Suriname starting in early second quarter 2018.
Kosmos holds an effective 30% participating interest in the Saint Louis Offshore Profond license. BP holds a 60% participating interest. The national oil company Société des Pétroles du Sénégal (Petrosen) holds 10%.