The Bravo-1 deep water wildcat exploration well in the Rio Muni Basin, offshore Equatorial Guinea, West Africa, has reached a Total Depth of 3,222 mBRT (metres below rotary table) and preparations are underway to plug and abandon the well as a dry hole.
BLOCKS H15 & H16 (COLLECTIVELY “BLOCK H”), OFFSHORE EQUATORIAL GUINEA, WEST AFRICA (ROC: 15% FREE CARRIED & TECHNICAL MANAGER)
Since ROC’s last ASX release dated 15 June 2004, the 9 5/8 inch casing was set at 2,905 mBRT and intermediate logs were run at that depth before the well drilled on in 8 ˝ inch hole to a Total Depth of 3,222 mBRT and the final suite of wireline logs run.
At 23:00hrs, local time, 20 June 2004, the current operation was preparing to plug and abandon the well as a dry hole based on the preliminary analysis of drill and log data. Rig release is expected to occur later this week.
Bravo-1 started drilling on 6 June 2004, in 1,509 metres of water 180 km southeast of Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, West Africa. The well was drilled by the Sedco Energy, a fifth generation, dynamically positioned, drilling vessel with ROC managing the operation.
Subsequent to the Pioneer Natural Resources Limited (“Pioneer”) acquisition of 20% interest in Block H from ROC, subject to Government approval (detailed in ROC’s ASX Release dated 7 June 2004) Pioneer has also acquired, subject to Government approval, an additional 20% from the Atlas Group. Therefore, the Block H Joint Venture will consist of: Pioneer (40%); The Atlas Group (Operator 1 & 25%); Sasol Petroleum International (Pty) Ltd (20%); and ROC (Technical Manager 2 & 15%) with Pioneer expected to acquire the Technical Manager’s role later in 2004.
Commenting upon the well results, ROC's Chief Executive Officer, Dr John Doran stated that:
"From the outset, Bravo-1 was clearly identified as a high risk exploration wildcat well and Block H as an area that would need more than one well to adequately test its petroleum potential.
Although commerciality is the only real measurement of success, the technical team can take encouragement from the fact that the geological information the well delivered was largely in line with pre-drill predictions and will be extremely useful when it comes to picking the location of the next well, which is expected to be drilled next year.
On a regular basis, ROC tries to expose its shareholders to wells which have the potential to change the Company,. At the same time, it tries to manage the downside risk which normally attaches itself to such opportunities. Bravo-1 was just such a well. The next one in this series of potential big hits will be Willows-1, which will test a potentially large onshore UK gas prospect in the third quarter of this year."
