Angola’s state-owned oil firm Sonangol and its partner in an exploration block offshore Angola, ANPG, successfully drilled an appraisal well that showed good reservoir potential for both oil and gas production.
Sonangol and ANGP announced on Thursday the successful completion of the drilling and testing operations of the Katambi-2 appraisal well in Block 24 of the Benguela Basin.
The Katambi-2 appraisal well crossed two productive intervals, confirming good quality reservoirs, with quality metrics higher than the ones from the Katambi-1 well, drilled by BP more than a decade ago. BP later returned its stake to the Angolan state saying that the discovery was not commercially viable.
Now Sonangol and ANGP had the Katambi-2 appraisal well drilled at a distance of about 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) from the Katambi-1 well.
Initial tests at Katambi-2 showed a stabilized production rate of 1,160 barrels a day (bpd) of condensate and 41 million standard cubic feet (MMscfd) of gas in the well. No presence of water or H?S (hydrogen sulfide) were found in the well, which reinforces the economic viability of developing the discovery and its potential contribution to optimizing national production.
At Katambi-2, Sonangol and ANGP had the first full flow test (Full DST) conducted on a non-associated gas reservoir in Angola. A preliminary assessment of the test results indicated that the well has the potential to produce more than 100 MMscfd.
Angola is looking to reverse years of falling oil production and develop non-associated gas resources as it aims to seize the renewed momentum in offshore oil and gas exploration, especially in producing countries that don’t need the Strait of Hormuz to ship their energy commodities worldwide.
At this time last year, Angola’s crude output slipped below 1 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time in two and a half years and for the first time since one of Africa’s biggest oil producers quit OPEC, effective January 2024.
In recent months, however, crude output has stabilized at about 1.1 million bpd, while the BP-Eni joint venture Azule Energy earlier this year launched Angola’s first non-associated gas development.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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