Norwegian group AGR has secured a contract with Svenska to deliver well management services for the Swedish oil company’s drilling campaign offshore Guinea Bissau, West Africa.
The contract involves provision of full well management and associated services, including drilling engineering and planning, supply chain management and operations support for the drilling campaign on Svenska’s operated shallow water blocks 2 and 5A licences, otherwise known as Sinapa and Esperanca.
Starting during the final quarter of this year, the programme is for a minimum of one firm well with the option of two additional exploration wells dependant on results (rig contract allowing).
The sequence length could therefore range from 45 days (dry hole case) to up to 180 days. This will be further clarified once the rig contract is tendered and the rig availability is known.
Sinapa was drilled by Premier Oil back in 2004. The Sinapa-2 well was drilled to a total depth of 3,657m, penetrating a thick Albian sequence from 3,131m to target depth.
The Albian at this location is broadly divided into an upper sand unit, a middle mudstone prone unit and a lower sand unit.
The upper sand unit is approximately 90m thick within which are low quality oil-bearing sandstones comprising around 25% of the unit.
Two samples of oil were recovered (initial tests suggested that the oil was high quality, around 35 degrees API).
The lower sand unit was found to be over 250m thick and contains better quality sandstones but was found to be water-bearing at the drill location.
On finding the prognosed reservoir sequence, the well was then sidetracked towards the salt diapir, kicking off at 1,400m and penetrating a 326m thick Albian sequence in a significantly up-dip position from 2,924m to 3,250m and finally reaching TD in the target salt diapir at 3,366 metres.
According to Premier in 2004, pressure and structural data suggest that the oil column in the sidetrack well is in pressure communication with the oil column in the original well, defining a potential oil column in excess of 500m within these steeply dipping beds flanking the salt diapir.
Premier subsequently relinquished the acreage, which was subsequently relicensed to Svenska.
FAR, which has a 15% interest in Sinapa says of the Sinapa oil discovery that it has contingent recoverable resource of 59million barrels of oil (unrisked mean).
In addition, there are several large untested prospects identified and mapped on recent 3D seismic, including the Atum prospect, with a prospective recoverable resource of 97million barrels.
Jan Hagen, vice president at the oil company, said of the campaign that is about to start: “This programme shows Svenska’s continuing commitment as operator with its co-venturers to maintain active levels of exploration offshore Guinea Bissau”
Ian Burdis, AGR’s Aberdeen-based VP UK and West Africa, said of the award: “AGR is pleased to be working with Svenska on this exciting project.
“This is an important award and in conjunction with other recent contract wins, strengthens AGR’s position as the premier provider of well management and associated services in North and West Africa.”
The Svenska project is the latest in a number of long-term contracts secured by AGR, which is enjoying growing world-wide demand for its well management services.
Svenska Petroleum Exploration is a privately-held Swedish oil and gas company which is currently active in Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, the Baltic Sea and Norway. It holds a 55% stake in the Guinea Bissau licences, with Petroguin controlling 30% and FAR holding the balance.
Operations are run from Stockholm, Oslo and London. The company is 100% owned by Petroswede which in turn is wholly owned by Sheikh Mohammed H Al-Amoundi, one of the largest private investors in Sweden.