Kosmos hits dust in Lamantin prospect off Mauritania

Oil and gas company Kosmos Energy has completed drilling the Lamantin-1 exploration well located in Block C-12 offshore Mauritania. The well failed and it will now be plugged and abandoned. 

The well was located in approximately 2,200 meters of water and it was drilled with the Ensco DS 12 drillship, formerly known as Atwood Achiever.

Kosmos said on Tuesday that the Lamantin-1 was drilled to a total depth of 5,150 meters and was designed to evaluate a previously untested Lower Campanian base of slope fan supplied from the Nouakchott River system, trapped in a combination structural-stratigraphic feature, and charged from underlying, oil-prone Cenomanian/Turonian and Albian source rocks.

As interpreted from logs and samples collected during drilling and wireline operations, Kosmos evaluation suggests the Campanian reservoir objective was water bearing with some residual hydrocarbons.

“We believe the prospect failed due to a lack of trap, related to a combination of up-dip sand pinch-out and top/base seal effectiveness,” the company said.

The well will now be plugged and abandoned and the well results integrated into the ongoing evaluation of the significant remaining prospectivity in Kosmos’ large acreage position.

Before the Lamantin prospect, Kosmos drilled the Hippocampe-1 exploration well in Block C-8 offshore Mauritania. This well also failed to find oil or gas.

Andrew G. Inglis, chairman and chief executive officer, said: “We are still in the early stages of exploring this newly emerging basin and our forward drilling program remains unchanged given the independent nature of the prospects. The drillship will now proceed as planned to test the independent Requin Tigre prospect offshore Senegal, which will be followed by two high-impact oil tests offshore Suriname in mid-2018.”

The Requin Tigre prospect is a Cenomanian/Albian base of slope fan supplied from the proven Senegal River system, and is located approximately 150 kilometers offshore, 60 kilometers west of the Tortue discovery, and 80 kilometers north of the Yakaar discovery in approximately 3,100 meters of water. It is estimated that drilling will take approximately sixty days.

Kosmos holds rights in the C-6, C-8, C-12, C-13, and C-18 contract areas under production sharing contracts with the Government of Mauritania’s Société Mauritanienne Des Hydrocarbures et de Patrimoine Minier (SMHPM). The blocks range in water depth between 100 and 3,000 meters, and have combined acreage of over 40,000 square kilometers gross.

Kosmos is the exploration operator of Block C-12 with 28 percent equity and is joined by its partners BP (62 percent) and SMHPM (10 percent).