'Crude oil deposits in Lagos beyond our expectations' - Prospecting firms

Afren Plc and its partners, Optimum Petroleum Development Limited and Lekoil Limited on Wednesday announced that the crude oil deposits they found in the well offshore Lagos surpassed their pre-drill expectations and estimates.

A statement by the firms said Afren, Lekoil and Optimum expected that the discovery would likely to be significantly higher than the anticipated 78 million barrels of oil equivalent at the Ogo prospect located on the OPL 310 licence offshore Lagos.

OPL 310 is located in the Upper Cretaceous fairway that runs along the West African Transform Margin.

Extending from the shallow water continental shelf to deep water, the block represented a wild cat exploration opportunity in an under-explored basin, the statement said.

It further said a detailed pre-drill evaluation of the block identified several prospects lying in the same Turonian, Cenomanian and Albian sandstone intervals that have yielded significant discoveries in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.

The first exploration well drilled by the partners was the Ogo prospect, a four-way dip-closed structure in the Turonian to Albian sandstone reservoirs.

The drilling programme included a planned side-track, testing a new play of stratigraphically trapped sediments that pinch-out onto the basement high.

The Chairman, Afren, Mr. Egbert Imomoh, said, 'The Ogo and Ogo-1st discovery continues a 100 per cent exploration track record following discoveries at Ebok North Fault Block and the Okoro East Extension in Nigeria and the Simrit-2 and Simrit-3 exploration wells in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

'Based on the well data, the partners have identified volumes in excess of our pre-drill estimates. We look forward to further exploration results in East Africa on the El Kuran well and in Kurdistan on Maqlub-1 and the exploration tail on the BR-5.'

The Ogo-1 well was drilled to a total measured depth of 10,518 ft (10,402 ft true vertical depth subsea).

The Ogo-1st reached a total measured depth (TD) of 17,987 ft (12,050 ft true vertical depth) and encountered hydrocarbon intervals in the same Turonian, Cenomanian and Albian reservoirs that were successfully drilled and logged at the Ogo-1 well.

Based on the well data, the partners estimate the P50 to P10 gross recoverable resources range to be significantly ahead of pre-drill expectations across the Ogo four-way dipped closed and syn-rift structures.

Additional upside potential, according to the statement, is expected in the syn-rift play. The partners expect the syn-rift to contain light oil or condensate rich gas.