AfrOil: Perenco’s offshore DRC subsidiary announces first oil discovery in three decades

Muanda International Oil Company (MIOC), an offshore subsidiary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) of the UK-based international oil and gas operator Perenco, has announced the first exploration discovery offshore DRC in almost thirty years.

MIOC has drilled two exploration wells in 2024, making an oil discovery in the Moke-East well, located between the Lukami and Motoba fields in the DRC coastal basin.

Using the Dixstone-owned Nuada self-elevated class 82 SD-C jack-up drilling rig, the explorer encountered a 24-foot net oil-bearing column, Perenco, which is the DRC’s only international producing operator, said in a statement on May 21.

According to the company, the discovery will be tested and the well completed in the coming weeks. The Nuada rig has now spudded the first of 12 wells on the GCO field, as part of MIOC’s continuing development drilling campaign offshore DRC, aiming to unlock further additional resources in the country.

The second exploration well, the LUKS-A well, which was targeting a southern extension of the Pinda formation, has now been plugged and abandoned following insufficient hydrocarbon potential to complete the well.

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