IHS Markit: Jove Marine drilling project could confirm Gabon’s offshore pre-salt potential

The outcome of an ongoing drilling project at the Jove Marine section of Block F13 offshore Gabon could provide further confirmation of the potential of pre-salt areas within the deepwater sections of the Lower Congo basin, according to a note from IHS Markit.

The London-based information provider noted on December 1 that Malaysia’s Petronas, the operator of Block F13, was moving ahead with the drilling of an exploration well that will test a four-way dip closure in the pre-salt Gamba and Dentale formations of the basin’s distal portion. Petronas spudded the Jove Marine well in early November and is expected to finish drilling in the first half of January.

According to other sources, the Malaysian company’s PC Gabon Upstream subsidiary has contracted the Maersk Viking, a drillship owned by Maersk Drilling (Denmark), to sink the well at a site located in 2,100-metre-deep water. The contract is valued at $24mn, a sum that includes both mobilisation and demobilisation costs.

Petronas has indicated that Jove Marine will be economical to develop if it contains at least 150mn barrels of oil in recoverable reserves, provided that world crude prices average $70 per barrel. It has also said that a discovery in the new well would serve to confirm the potential of pre-salt fields in deepwater sections of the Lower Congo basin.

According to IHS Markit, the likelihood of encountering oil-mature source rock has increased since the discovery of crude reserves at Ivela, one of the fields within the neighbouring Block E13. Repsol (Spain) and its partner Woodside Energy (Australia) found oil there in mid-2018, the information provider said. It also noted that Petronas had identified nine prospects that might hold as much as 8.7bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) at Block F13.

IHS Markit was not the only observer to highlight the upside of the Malaysian company’s efforts in the Gabonese offshore zone. Douglas Rycroft, director at the Edinburgh-based consultancy Gneiss Energy, described Petronas’ work as “a sign of recovery in the African exploration space, where a number of key wells are now underway.”

Rycroft also drew attention to Gabon’s dream of finding pre-salt oil reserves analogous to the finds offshore Brazil, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. “One such well now under way is Petronas’ follow-up to the earlier Ivela discovery in the portion of the Lower Congo Basin: Jove Marine, which lies in Gabonese waters, targeting the pre-salt potential of the Gamba and Dentale formations,” Rycroft told NewsBase. “The industry has long been attracted to the potential of the pre-salt plays in Gabon but without the success to date to replicate the discoveries of Brazil. Early signs suggest that there are positive indications, but there remains a long way to go before the industry can confidently proclaim success.

He also talked up the economic benefits of a new oil find, saying: “In the wake of fiscal and regulatory instability in Gabon, it would be a strong result for the country if it was to deliver with the drill bit.”