Cairn Energy Spud Third Well in Senegal
Tuesday 15 March 2016
JV partner FAR reports that, following the successful drilling of the first two appraisal wells offshore Senegal, the third well to be drilled by Cairn Energy as part of the SNE oil field appraisal program offshore Senegal, BEL-1, has been spudded. The BEL-1 well will be drilled in approx. 1,100 metres of water and drilled to a TDVSS (total vertical depth subsea) of approx. 2,757 metres before an evaluation program including logging and coring is undertaken.
The aim of the appraisal program is to progress towards proving a minimum economic field size for the SNE discovery, which FAR estimates to be approx. 200 million barrels of oil. In addition, the BEL-1 well will drill the Bellatrix exploration prospect which will evaluate the untested Buried Hills play. BEL-1 will also be deepened to appraise the northern portion of the SNE oil field.
Drilling of the BEL-1 well will be followed by a wireline logging and coring program before the well is plugged and abandoned according to plans. BEL-1 operations are expected to be completed next month.
FAR and its joint venture partners will be operating a tight hole policy, and therefore FAR does not anticipate making any further announcements regarding the drilling program until the BEL1 well has reached TDVSS.
Source: FAR Limited