Galp Energia announces that the Wingat-1 exploration well in the Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 23 in the Walvis basin, offshore Namibia, has been concluded and the results from the well indicated the presence of oil, although not in commercial volumes. The Wingat-1 well, spudded in March 25, was drilled in water depths of circa 1,005 meters and has reached a final depth of 5,000 meters. The well is currently being plugged and abandoned.
The main objective of the well was to test the resource potential of the Albian age carbonate platform, which was penetrated on targeted depth, but its reservoir quality is much less developed than originally expected.
The Wingat well was initially planned to be drilled to a total depth (TD) of 4,127 meters, but because of the potential to drill deeper to test the presence of turbidite reservoirs and the opportunity to penetrate and to sample the main source rock, the consortium decided to go deeper, to a final TD of 5,000 meters. This decision was also supported by the increasing concentrations of hydrocarbon shows present in the well below of the depth of 1,500 meters.
The information obtained, coupled with the results of preliminary studies of all data collected from the well, allowed the consortium to identify two well-developed source rocks, which are rich in organic carbon and both are within the oil-generating window. Also, the well encountered several thin-bedded-sandy reservoirs that are saturated by oil. Four samples of this oil were collected and the analysis of these samples indicated the presence of light oil, 38º to 42º API, with minimal contamination. No water bearing zones were identified in the drilled section.
The fact that the source rock is in the oil window and generating liquid hydrocarbons of excellent quality confirms the source potential of the basin. As such, the results of Wingat-1 well provide important information that will help calibrating the next exploration steps in the Walvis basin. These source rocks present in the well can charge reservoir intervals of other prospects identified in the license, including Murombe prospect, which will be the next prospect to be drilled.
The semi-submersible Transocean Marianas will be mobilised to the prospect Murombe which is about 15 kilometers westward of Wingat-1. The drilling of this prospect, in Walvis basin, will test a Cretaceous basin-floor fan and spudding is expected by the end of May.
The 2013 exploration programme in offshore Namibia comprises the drilling of three exploration wells, two in PEL 23, Wingat and Murombe at Walvis basin, and one prospect in PEL 24, Moosehead at Orange basin, which is expected to be spudded in the end of third quarter of 2013.
Galp Energia holds a 14% stake in the consortium that explores three offshore PEL in Namibia, namely PEL 23 in the Walvis basin, and PEL 24 and PEL 28 in the Orange basin, while HRT (operator) holds a stake of 86%, 81% and 77%, in PEL 23, PEL 24 and PEL 28, respectively.
Source: Galp Energia, SGPS, S.A.