afrol News, 22 January - Ebouri has been confirmed as a "new commercial oil discovery offshore Gabon." The field is located 11 kilometres north-west of the producing Etame field offshore Gabon, thus making production costs lower than for an isolated field.

Pan-Ocean Energy today confirmed a new commercial pool discovery on the wildcat well Ebouri No.1 ("EBO-1"), where the company has a 31.36 percent interest in the new field. Promising discoveries of a new oil pool at Ebouri had been announced earlier this month, but additional tests had to be made before it could be established whether the discovery was commercial.

Therefore, a second sidetrack has been completed and logged, successfully delineating the new pool. The EBO-1 well further was sidetracked twice for geological reasons. Wireline logs indicate that a 15.5 metre oil column was encountered within the reservoir.

PanOcean - which holds the largest interest in the Etame Field - today confirmed that "the results of the second sidetrack were consistent with the previous well results and that initial analysis suggests that the accumulation has the potential to be economically developed via a tie-back to the nearby Etame FPSO." The well is currently being plugged and abandoned, awaiting development.

- The Ebouri discovery adds real momentum to PanOcean's growth strategies, commented David Lyons, PanOcean President and Chief Executive Officer. "This discovery is an exciting beginning to a planned 2004 high-impact exploration programme. We have the potential to add significant value to our asset base and substantially extend our production from this area," added Mr Lyons.

Also VAALCO Gabon Etame - which operates and owns a 28 percent interest in the Etame field - celebrated the news. Robert Gerry, Chairman and CEO of VAALCO stated, "We now have three penetrations of the Gamba reservoir within the Ebouri prospect, all confirming oil pay. While a further step out will be necessary before we can determine the reserves, we believe we have a commercial new field discovery."

- Engineering studies to tie the Ebouri discovery back to our existing FPSO facilities will begin immediately, added Mr Gerry. "These facilities have designed capacity to receive 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil per day."

Onstream for 18 months and having produced over 7 million barrels to date, the Etame field produces approximately 15,000 barrels per day from the same Gamba formation as that encountered in EBO-1. The Etame FPSO currently has a design capacity of 25,000 barrels per day.

The partners at the Etame field are now planning to drill an additional development well in the Etame field during the second quarter of this year, to increase production from the field to in excess of 20,000 barrels per day.

In addition, the consortium plans to drill one additional exploration well on the Etame Marin permit during the second quarter in fulfilment of its obligations on the concession. Proved reserves in the Etame field have been independently estimated at 13.3 million barrels.

PanOcean owns a 31.36% working interest in the Etame field, and the other partners are VAALCO Energy, (28.07% and operator), Sasol Ltd. (27.75%), Energy Resources Japan (2.98%), PetroEnergy Resources (2.34%) and Energy Africa (7.5%).

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories