Dana Petroleum reports that its deep-water drilling operations have now been completed at the Aigrette-1 exploration well, in Block 7 offshore Mauritania. Aigrette-1 has discovered oil in the targeted Cretaceous sandstones, approximately 43 kilometres northwest of Dana's Pelican-1 gas discovery.
The Aigrette-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 5,152 metres in a water depth of approximately 1,358 metres. A comprehensive programme of wireline logging, pressure measurement, fluid sampling and sidewall coring was undertaken to maximise the information from the well.
Downhole pressure measurements and fluid samples confirmed a 20 metre oil column was present in good quality Cretaceous age reservoir sands. The discovery of an oil bearing reservoir horizon led to the decision to deepen the well beyond its original planned depth of around 4,900 metres. Although significant further sands were encountered in this deepened section, these were not found to be oil bearing at this location.
The Production Sharing Contract ("PSC") across Block 7 covers a very large offshore area of approximately 10,090 square kilometres. Thus the Block 7 licensed area is equivalent to over 50 typical UKCS blocks. Aigrette-1 is only the second well to be drilled in Block 7, following the Pelican gas discovery made in late 2003 by Dana's first well in this PSC.
Tom Cross, Dana's Chief Executive, commented: "Following the significant gas discovery at Pelican, Dana is pleased to report that its second well in Block 7 has discovered oil. Our technical team will now begin a comprehensive analysis of all the data from the Aigrette-1 well, including rock and fluid samples, and integrate this with information from across the block.
The extensive acreage of Block 7, coupled with the discovery of both oil and gas within the first two wells and the presence in Aigrette of deeper sands than those found in Pelican, all provides considerable encouragement for future drilling in this under-explored region of northern Mauritania."
The participating interests in Block 7 are:
Dana Petroleum (operator) 36.00%
Gaz de France 27.85%
Hardman Resources 16.20%
Woodside Energy 15.00%
ROC Oil 4.95%
