Ocean Rig Poseidon drillship is sailing towards Chariot’s PEL 71 block offshore Namibia where it will soon begin drilling of the Prospect S well.
Azinam, Chariot’s partner in the project, on Friday said the sixth generation drillship would be at the location within the next 24 hours. The spud is expected “shortly thereafter,” with the drilling operation expected to last around 40 days.
Chariot will be hoping the rig will have a better luck this time, as the Ocean Rig Poseidon’s last well, drilled for Tullow in Namibia, came up dry.
According to Azinam, the Prospect S well has been strategically designed to test multiple zones including Aptian, Albian and Cenomanian-Turonian stacked targets within an overall structural closure.
The total gross mean prospective resources are 708mmbls, according to Azinam’s most recent Competent Persons Report by Lloyds Register in September 2018.
In addition to Prospect S, Azinam sees considerable follow-on potential within PEL 71 in several analogous adjacent structural closures all of which are clearly defined on 6,100km² of high quality broadband 3D seismic data.
Daniel McKeown , Managing Director of Azinam Limited, said: “We are delighted to announce the mobilization of the Ocean Rig Poseidon as we approach drilling on Prospect S, the first well of our multi-well, multi-year drilling programme.
I look forward to providing further updates on our operations on Prospect S as drilling progresses, as well as across the wider Azinam portfolio. Azinam is unique in this highly prospective part of the Southern African Atlantic Margin due to our license footprint, G&G database and the scale of our drilling plans. We’re delighted to start our drilling campaign with Prospect S alongside our partners, Chariot, NAMCOR and Ignitus Oil & Gas.”
Chariot, operates the block with a 65% stake, with partners being Azinam 20%, NAMCOR 10% and Ignitus 5%.