Repsol spuds Welwitschia well (Namibia)

Spanish oil company Repsol has kicked off drilling operations off the coast of Namibia.

Tower Resources plc, which owns a stake in the licence, said it received formal notification from Repsol, the Operator of Namibia PEL0010 (Neptune 30% working interest), that the Rowan Renaissance Drillship spudded the Welwitschia-1 well at 14:40 GMT on 23 April, 2014.

The three-year long drillship contract officially started on April 22, 2014 at an effective day rate of $619,000 during the first year.

The Welwitschia-1 prospect which is targeting net risked recoverable resources of 496 mmboe to Tower’s 30% interest (based on the updated CPR – July 2013) and will intersect up to five separate reservoir targets ranging from the Palaeocene-Maastrichtian to the Albian Carbonate sequence at a potential total depth (TD) of 3,000m TVDSS. The Operator expects this to take up to 46 days.

Tower said in a previous report that during the Welwitschia drilling there would be no updates to the market as the well is classified as a “tight hole”.

The company said it would provide a comprehensive update only once operations on the Welwitschia-1 well have been fully completed and analysed.