Chariot comes up dry offshore Namibia

Chariot Oil & Gas has failed to encounter a hydrocarbon accumulation at its Prospect S well on the Central Blocks license, offshore Namibia.

Chariot is the operator of the license with a 65% interest and its partners are Azinam with a 20%, NAMCOR with 10%, and Ignitus with the remaining 5% interest.

The well was spud in early October with the Ocean Rig Poseidon sixth generation deepwater drillship. Right before drilling Chariot’s well, the drillship drilled the Cormorant-1 well, also located offshore Namibia, for Tullow but came up dry there as well.

Chariot said on Thursday that the Prospect S well has been drilled to a total measured depth of 4,165m to test the stacked targets in Prospect S. The well penetrated the anticipated turbidite reservoir sands, in line with the pre-drill prognosis, however the reservoirs were water-bearing. The data collected will be used to calibrate the existing data sets to understand the implications of the well results on the prospectivity of the surrounding area.

The well will now be plugged and abandoned, Chariot said.

Larry Bottomley, CEO, commented: “Whilst very disappointing that we have not established a hydrocarbon accumulation in the prospect, we have learnt valuable information about the reservoir potential of these turbidite systems which form the primary targets across many of the prospects within the Central Blocks portfolio. We will further evaluate the extensive data gathered in the well to understand the implications for the Central blocks portfolio.”

Bottomley added: “With all license commitments now met across the entire portfolio, the company is fully-funded to progress our assets in Morocco and Brazil whilst remaining vigilant to other value accretive opportunities.”

Daniel McKeown, Managing Director of Azinam Group, commented: ““While we are disappointed with the result of the Prospect S well, the operations were executed in a timely, safe and efficient manner and there are invaluable learnings that can be extracted from the significant amount of data that has been gathered from the well. These will undoubtedly inform our future exploration plans in the surrounding area. We remain focused on our multi-well drilling program with prospects across the Walvis, Luderitz and Orange Basins in the Southern African Atlantic Margin offshore Namibia and South Africa.”