US independent Anadarko has made a further major gas discovery offshore Mozambique, though it has been less fortunate with its hunt for resources in Kenyan waters.
The Orca accumulation is stated as being “fully contained” within Offshore Area 1 of Mozambique’s Rovuma basin.
The Orca-1 discovery well encountered some 56m (190 net feet) of natural gas pay in a Paleocene fan system.
“Discovering another large, distinct and separate natural gas accumulation in the Offshore Area 1 continues our outstanding exploration success offshore Mozambique,” said Anadarko’s senior VP – worldwide exploration, Bob Daniels.
“We are designing an initial two-well appraisal programme to define the areal extent of the Orca field, which will commence immediately after drilling our Linguado and Espadarte exploration wells.
“Orca is a single large Paleocene column, and its proximity to shore provides additional options and flexibility for potential future development.”
The Orca-1 exploration well was drilled to almost 5,000m total depth in a water depth of 1,060m of water.
Anadarko is the operator in the Offshore Area 1 with a 36.5% working interest. Co-licensees include Mitsui E&P Mozambique Area 1 (20%), BPRL Ventures Mozambique (10%), Videocon Mozambique Rovuma 1 (10%) and PTT Exploration & Production (8.5%).
In December, Eni revealed that it had signed a deal with Anadarko to develop common natural gas reserves offshore Mozambique and options for liquefied natural gas. Eni’s discovery last year of at least 7trillion cu.ft of gas offshore Mozambique was considered by one of its largest ever.
To that point, Andarko had chalked up an estimated 30TCF of gas discoveries offshore the East African state.
The US company has also reported the completion of drilling its Kubwa well on the L-07 block offshore Kenya, which encountered non-commercial oil shows in reservoir-quality sands.
Daniels was optimistic.
“We are very encouraged with our first test of Kenya’s previously unexplored deepwater basin, in which mud-log and well-site evaluation of core data indicates the presence of a working petroleum system with reservoir-quality sands.
“The Kubwa well tested multiple play concepts and provided useful data regarding the prospectivity of our 6million-acre position offshore Kenya. The rig will now mobilise south to drill the Kiboko well.”
Anadarko operates L-07, with a 50% working interest. Co-venturers in L-07 block include Total E&P Kenya (40%) and PTT Exploration & Production (10%).