Cairn Energy has announced positive results from the drilling of its SNE North-1 exploration well offshore Senegal, which encountered both oil and gas reserves in the primary objective
An estimated 24m of gross hydrocarbon column had been found across three intervals. In addition, the well also came across 11m net condensate and gas which, said Cairn, is a high-quality reservoir in the primary objective.
In the deeper secondary objective, the well had encountered 4m net oil in a good quality reservoir. Apart from that, the SNE North-1 exploration well encountered a slightly lighter type of 35° API than the SNE Field.
According to Cairn, the SNE North-1 well result has positive implications for further hydrocarbon potential to the north of the structural trend containing the SNE field and SNE North-1 discovery well, as well as for broader exploration potential in the permit.
The company said that further work needs to be carried out to establish a potential commerciality of this discovery and to integrate the results with the block wide data gathered to date.
Located about 900m of water depth and 15km north of the SNE-1 discovery, the SNE North-1 exploration well was drilled to a total depth of 2,837m. Cairn confirmed that the drilling operation have successfully been completed before time and within the budget limit.
Simon Thomson, CEO of Cairn Energy, said, “The SNE North well results are encouraging in terms of further prospectivity and implications for the full block potential offshore Senegal.”
He further added, “An update on resources and the SNE development plans will be provided at our interim results later this month.”