OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — French oil major, Total will drill up to four gas wells in South Africa starting from the first quarter of 2020.
The gas discovery located in 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin, located 175 kilometers off the southern coast, will lead to further exploration and appraisal in the coming year.
Already, a Deepsea Stavanger for multi-well drilling has been secured, and the drilling will begin with the spud of the Luiperd Prospect in Q1-2020.
The block covers an area of 19,000 square kilometers with water depths ranging from 200 to 1,800 meters.
The Paddavissie Fairway in the southwest corner of the block includes the Brulpadda discovery and several submarine fan prospects.
The Brulpadda well encountered 57 meters of net gas condensate pay in Lower Cretaceous reservoirs. Following the success of the main objective, the well was deepened to a final depth of 3,633 meters and has also been successful in the Brulpadda-deep prospect.
“We are very pleased to announce the Brulpadda discovery which was drilled in a challenging Deepwater environment”, said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at Total.
“With this discovery, Total has opened a new world-class gas and oil play and is well-positioned to test several follow-on prospects on the same block.”
Total drilled this exploration well with the latest generation drilling ship and was able to leverage its experience in similar environments, such as the West of Shetland, UK.
Following the success of Brulpadda and confirmation of the play potential, Total and its partners recently completed acquisition of 3D seismic this year and will follow with up to four exploration wells on the license.
The Block 11B/12B covers an area of 19,000 square kilometers, with water depths ranging from 200 to 1,800 meters, and is operated by Total with a 45% working interest, alongside Qatar Petroleum (25%), CNR international (20%) and Main Street, a South African consortium (10%).
