Cairn Success in offshore Senegal continues

Cairn announced the results of the SNE-4 appraisal well offshore Senegal where operations have been safely and successfully completed following drilling, coring and logging. The well is now being plugged and abandoned.

The SNE-4 well was appraising the eastern extent of the SNE field discovered in 2014 and aiming to confirm the nature of the upper reservoirs in the oil zone.

Cairn’s analysis of the dataset collected is continuing with initial results as follows:

  * Confirms the extension of reservoirs in the eastern extent of the SNE field, more than 5 kilometres (km) to the east and down dip of SNE-3
  * Confirms oil bearing Upper Reservoir sands of similar quality to those encountered as gas bearing elsewhere in the field
  * The uppermost gas sands first encountered in SNE-3 and BEL-1 were also present and gas bearing in SNE-4
  * Confirms correlation and presence of the principal reservoir units between each of the wells across the whole field
 * A gross oil column of ~100 metres (m) encountered, similar to SNE-1, SNE-2, SNE-3 and BEL-1
  * 108m of continuous core taken across the oil bearing reservoir interval with 100% recovery
  * Multiple samples of gas, oil and water recovered to surface
  * Initial indications confirm similar 32° API oil quality as seen across the field
 
Cairn Energy Chief Executive Simon Thomson said, “We have now drilled four successful appraisal wells in Senegal and we are delighted with the results to date of the multi-well evaluation programme, which has confirmed the scale and potential of this world class asset. Operations in Senegal have been safely conducted and are ahead of schedule and substantially under budget. We have gathered a very large volume of data from operations to date and we look forward to progressing our long-term, multi-field, multi-phase exploitation plan to maximise value in Senegal. We see clear potential to access additional cost savings from the current lower operating environment in respect of planned future activity.”

The SNE-4 well is the Joint Venture’s (JV) sixth well offshore Senegal and the fourth completed this year as part of a multi-well evaluation programme to help delineate the shape of the structure and establish deliverability and full potential of the field. The Ocean Rig Athena will now be de-mobilised and the JV will continue integrating the significant amount of data collected from the four wells, including two drill stem tests and more than 600m of core.  This will enable the JV to determine the most effective way to further the appraisal of this significant oil accumulation and evaluate development options.

The SNE-4 well, located in 942m water depth and approximately 85km offshore in the Sangomar Offshore block, reached the planned total depth (TD) of 2,944m below sea level (TVDSS).