More offshore acreage for UK firm in Equatorial Guinea

London-based independent E&P company Panoro Energy has expanded its portfolio offshore Equatorial Guinea, following the award of a stake and operatorship in Block EG-01. 

Panoro Energy revealed on Monday, 20 February 2023, that it was awarded a 56 per cent participating interest and operatorship of Block EG-01 located offshore Equatorial Guinea, pending ratification. The company’s partners in this block will be Kosmos Energy (24 per cent) and GEPetrol (20 per cent), pending signature.

John Hamilton, CEO of Panoro, commented: “The award of Block EG-01 is a natural and complementary expansion of our portfolio in Equatorial Guinea and in line with our infrastructure led exploration strategy, increasing our access to a large inventory of oil prospects and leads within tie-back distance of existing production facilities for a modest financial exposure.

“Panoro is pleased to become an operator in Equatorial Guinea and will seek to leverage its core subsurface skill set and we look forward to working closely with our partners and stakeholders. We are grateful to the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons for the award of Block EG-01 and this endorsement of Panoro’s strategy to continue growing its business in Equatorial Guinea.”

According to Panoro, Block EG-01 borders Block G where the company has a 14.25 per cent non-operated interest – which contains the producing Ceiba field and Okume Complex – and Block S, where the firm agreed to acquire a 12 per cent non-operated interest.

Located in water depths ranging from 30 metres to 500 metres, mainly shallow, Block EG-01 is covered by high-quality 3D seismic. Panoro says that partners have been awarded Block EG-01 for an initial three-year period during which they will conduct subsurface studies based on existing seismic data to define further and evaluate the prospectivity of the block. Following this, the partners in this block will have the option to enter into a further two-year period, during which they will undertake to drill one exploration well.

Furthermore, Panoro points out that past exploration activities on Block EG-01 have tested and proven “the key geological elements for successful exploration.” The company claims that these findings have led to the identification of “an extensive prospect inventory” within tie-back distance to the Ceiba field and Okume Complex facilities.

Moreover, three exploration wells have been drilled on the block since 2003, with two encountering thin oil and gas pay and one encountering oil shows. The main hydrocarbon plays are Eocene sands and Upper Cretaceous turbidites analogous to the Block G plays, where over one billion barrels STOIIP has been discovered.

In addition, Panoro highlights that there is potential for deeper Albian targets, similar to the Block S prospect, which is scheduled for drilling in 2024.