BW Energy kicks off production drilling at Dussafu

January 29, 2018

BW Energy Dussafu has started drilling the DTM-2H production well on the Tortue oil field located offshore Gabon as part of the Dussafu Marin Production Sharing Contract (PSC).

The well is being drilled with the Borr Drilling-owned jack-up rig Borr Norve, which was secured back in September 2017.

The Dussafu Marin PSC is operated by BW Energy Dussafu BV with Panoro Energy as its partner. There are four oil fields within the Dussafu Permit: Ruche, Tortue, Moubenga and Walt Whitman.

Tortue is an offshore field located in the southern part of Gabon and situated in a water depth of 116 meters approximately 50 km from the coast. The field contains oil reserves in two main sandstone reservoirs – the Gamba and the Dentale D6.

Panoro informed on Monday that the DTM-2H well is being drilled as a horizontal well targeting the Dentale D6 reservoir at 3,140 m true vertical depth subsea. Following drilling, the well is intended to be completed as a gas lifted, subsea oil production well with an approximate 500 meter horizontal drain. The drilling and completion for DTM-2H is expected to take approximately 70 days.

The company also said that, following the drilling of the DTM-2H well, the rig will move first to drill the DTM-3 pilot hole in order to appraise the northwest of the Tortue field in both the Gamba and Dentale reservoirs. Subsequently, the rig will drill the DTM 3-H production well targeting the Gamba reservoir at Tortue.

Earlier this month, Gabonese government approved the amended Field Development Plan (FDP) for the Tortue oil field.

The two production wells will be tied back to a leased FPSO via subsea trees and flowlines. BW will use its own FPSO, which previously operated on the Azurite field, for the Tortue development. The unit, which is currently in Keppel shipyard in preparation for deployment, has been renamed to BW Adolo FPSO. First oil is planned for 2H 2018.

Depending on results of phase 1 and appraisal well, phase 2 of drilling at Tortue may consist of two further development wells to increase production.

Phase 2 drilling starts in 4Q 2019 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 1Q 2020. It will contain one horizontal well in Gamba reservoir and one horizontal well in Dentale D6.