Total spins drill bit at Brulpadda re-entry offshore South Africa

French oil company Total has started drilling the Brulpadda-1AX re-entry well on Block 11B/12B offshore South Africa.

The beginning of drilling operations on the Brulpadda-1AX re-entry well was announced by Africa Energy Corp., which holds a 4.9% effective interest in Block 11B/12B, on Thursday, December 27. Africa Energy closed the acquisition of interest in the exploration right for Block 11B/12B earlier in December.

Total is the operator and has a 45% interest in Block 11B/12B, while Qatar Petroleum and Canadian Natural Resources Limited have 25% and 20% interests, respectively.

Garrett Soden, Africa Energy’s President and CEO, commented, “The Brulpadda-1AX exploration well is a world-class, basin-opening opportunity in one of the last under-explored regions offshore Africa. We look forward to drilling results in the first quarter of 2019.”

Block 11B/12B is located in the Outeniqua Basin approximately 175 kilometers off the southern coast of South Africa. The area has a proven petroleum system from the nearby Sable and Oryx oil fields. The Brulpadda Prospect is one of five similar submarine fan prospects with direct hydrocarbon indicators defined utilizing 2D seismic surveys acquired across the Paddavissie Fairway in 2001 and 2005. The Brulpadda Prospect has gross prospective resources of more than 500 million barrels with significant followon potential in the success case.

The Brulpadda-1AX exploration well is being drilled in 1,432 meters of water by the Odfjell Drilling-owned Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible rig to a total depth of 3,420 meters subsea.

According to Africa Energy, the well will test the oil potential in a mid-Cretaceous aged deep marine fan sandstone system within combined stratigraphic/structural closure. Drilling and evaluation of the well is expected to take approximately 85 days with a gross budget of approximately $154 million, including contingency for downtime due to weather.