Borr jack-up rig spuds final well on its list of drilling tasks with BW Energy

February 7, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Oslo-listed oil and gas E&P player BW Energy has started drilling the last well in its current program at an oil field in the Dussafu license off the coast of Gabon, Africa. The drilling activities are being carried out with a jack-up rig owned by Borr Drilling, an offshore drilling contractor.

Norve jack-up rig; Source: Borr Drilling

The production drilling campaign at Dussafu, which has delivered eight new production wells across the Hibiscus/Ruche development project, located about 20 kilometers northwest of the Tortue field, ended after the completion of the DHIBM-7H well that added an estimated 23.1 million barrels of gross 2P reserves.

Once the well was put on stream with a conventional electrical submersible pump (ESP) system, Borr Drilling’s Norve jack-up rig undertook a workover/ESP replacement program on certain existing wells, which was completed in early January 2025.

As a result, all wells are said to have conventional ESP systems installed, resulting in gross production reaching the targeted 40,000 bopd level by year-end. With this out of the way, the only thing left on the rig’s list was the Bourdon prospect test well (DBM-1), slated to be the last rig operation under the current contract in early 2025.

This prospect has an estimated mid-case potential of 83 million barrels in place and 29 million barrels recoverable in the Gamba and Dentale formations. The Bourdon prospect test well was spud in January 2025. As operations are ongoing, results are anticipated in the first quarter of 2025.

BW Energy has a 73.5% operated stake in the Dussafu permit and Panoro Energy holds the remaining 17.5% participating interest. According to the firm’s partner, gross production averaged 37,153 bopd in Q4 2024, the highest quarterly rate achieved since production began on the block in 2018, and reached 40,000 bopd in November 2024.

Once the Norve rig is done with Bourdon, it will move to its next assignment with another operator. The rig also recently secured work with Vaalco to drill multiple development and appraisal/exploration wells in 2025/2026 and perform workovers.