Italy's energy giant Eni on Monday announced a new oil discovery in Block 15/06, in Angola's deep offshore Kalimba exploration prospect. The new discovery contains 230-300 million barrels of light oil, Eni said in a written statement which described Angola as "key" to its growth strategy.
The Kalimba-1 NFW well, which has led to the discovery, is located at approximately 150 kilometers off Angola's coast and 50 kilometers South East from the Armada Olombendo FPSO (East Hub), the statement said.
The well was drilled by the West Gemini drillship in a water depth of 458 meters and reached a total depth of 1901 metres.
Kalimba-1 NFW proved a 23 meters net oil pay of high quality oil (33° API) contained in Upper Miocene sandstones with excellent petrophysical properties. The data acquired in Kalimba-1 NFW indicate a production capacity in excess of 5,000 barrels of oil per day.
The discovery opens new opportunities for oil exploration in the southern part of Block 15/06, long considered mainly gas prone, Eni said.
The Joint Venture, composed by Eni (operator, 36.8421%), Sonangol P&P (36.8421%) and SSI Fifteen Limited (26.3158%), will work to appraise the updip of the discovery and will begin studies to speed its development, Eni added.
Angola is a key Country in Eni's organic growth strategy, and has had a presence in the African country since 1980. It currently has an equity production of about 155,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
In Block 15/06 the two oil development projects, West hub and East Hub, are currently producing about 150,000 barrels of oil per day (100%). Eni is also operator of Cabinda Norte Block, located onshore Angola.
The next start-ups in block 15/06 this year will be the Upper Miocene, in the East Hub, and the Subsea Boosting System for the Mpungi field, while the Vandumbu field, that will be connected to the West Hub, will start production at the end of 2018, ahead of plan.
These start-ups will add further 30,000 barrels of oil to the overall production from Block 15/06, which in 2019 will exceed 170,000 bopd gross, Eni stated.
