Edinburgh based exploration company, Cairn Energy has announced further exploration and appraisal success in their latest well in the companies ongoing evaluation programme offshore Senegal.

Cairn Energy says the latest well it has drilled in its key Senegal oil field has been successful and it will begin drilling a fourth well soon.

The oil and gas explorer, which is developing new assets in Africa and the North Sea, said the drilling operation has been important in proving the contents and quality of the field.

In March Cairn upgraded the amount of oil it thinks it has discovered at the Senegal well, saying that its best estimate of the reserves there has gone up by 20 per cent. It said at the time it believes there are 385m barrels of oil it can recover off the coast of Senegal.

The BEL-1 well was targeting the Bellatrix exploration prospect and appraising the northern extent of the SNE field discovered in 2014. Based on the positive campaign results to date, the Joint Venture (JV) has agreed a fourth well location, SNE-4, which will commence operations shortly.

BEL-1 Exploration Target:

The main exploration objective zones are tight gas-bearing sandstones that are not of productive reservoir quality

Two good quality gas-bearing sand reservoirs (combined net thickness of 8 metres (m)) were encountered between the Bellatrix main objective and deeper SNE appraisal objective

BEL-1 Appraisal Target:

Confirm the extension of reservoirs in the northern area of the SNE field

Good quality reservoir sands encountered within the Upper Reservoirs

Good correlation and presence of the principal reservoir units between SNE-1, SNE-2, SNE-3 and BEL-1 over a distance of more than 9 kilometres (km)

Gas-Oil and Oil-Water depths indicate an oil column of ~100m gross at BEL-1 similar to SNE-1, SNE-1 and SNE-3

144m of continuous core taken across the entire oil reservoir interval with 100% recovery

Multiple samples of gas, oil and water recovered to the surface

Initial measurements show similar oil quality as seen in SNE-1, SNE-2 and SNE-3, with higher oil density towards the base of the column

The BEL-1 well targeted a shallower ‘buried hill’ exploration play which is one of multiple exploration play types that have been identified across the block. The BEL-1 well exploration results confirm the presence of shallower regionally extensive reservoirs also encountered in the SNE-3 well more than 9 km away. These well results, along with the latest 3D seismic acquired in Q4 2015, will be incorporated into block wide remapping to look at possible new plays and down-dip oil potentially associated with the shallower reservoirs.

In light of the success of the ongoing appraisal programme, the JV has agreed that the Ocean Rig Athena will now drill SNE-4, located 5km south-east of the SNE-1 discovery well, to appraise the eastern extent of the field and aiming to confirm the nature of the upper reservoirs in the oil zone.

Cairn Energy PLC Chief Executive Simon Thomson said: “The drilling programme in Senegal continues to provide positive evidence of the scale and extent of the SNE field. The BEL-1 appraisal results have provided definitive information confirming the northern extent of the high quality reservoirs seen in the other wells and demonstrated an increased oil column in this area of the field. Operations have been safely and successfully completed and significant data gathered to help the joint venture partners establish the ultimate size of the significant resource base. The evaluation programme continues with the SNE-4 well.”

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