Mauritania's Tortue West 'Could Underpin LNG Project'
US independent Kosmos Energy said March 16 that its Ahmeyim-2 appraisal well has successfully delineated the Ahmeyim and Guembeul gas discoveries offshore Mauritania and Senegal.
Located in Mauritanian waters 5km northwest of its Tortue-1 discovery well in waters 2.8km deep, Ahmeyim-2 defined the field limit and extended the productive field area from roughly 50km² to 90km², said Kosmos, adding that it encountered 78 m of net gas pay in two excellent quality reservoirs, including 46 m in the Lower Cenomanian and 32 m in the underlying Albian.
“With this well, we believe we have proven sufficient gas resource to underpin a world-scale LNG project in the Tortue West structure alone,” said Kosmos chairman and CEO Andrew G Inglis.
With the integration of its Ahmeyim-2 well results, Kosmos said its P-mean gross resource estimate for the Tortue West structure has increased to 15 Tcf, from 11 Tcf. Accordingly, the P-mean gross resource estimate for the Greater Tortue Complex has increased to over 20 trillion ft3, from 17 trillion ft3.
In January 2016 Kosmos last raised its estimate for the cross-border Greater Tortue from 14 trillion ft3 and said that it, SMHPM and neighbouring Senegal state Petrosen agreed on basic principles for developing the Greater Tortue complex.
“Ahmeyim-2 is our fourth successful exploration and appraisal well and continues our 100% success rate in the outboard Cretaceous petroleum system offshore Mauritania and Senegal, further demonstrating that Kosmos has opened a world-class hydrocarbon province,” said Inglis on March 16, noting that the company would work towards its commercialization. The company noted static fluid pressure communication between its latest Ahmeyim-2 and earlier Tortue-1 and Guembeul-1 wells.
Kosmos now plans to drill the first of three independent oil tests in its blocks offshore Mauritania and Senegal, starting with the Teranga-1 well in the Cayar Offshore Profond Block, offshore Senegal.
Since 2012, Kosmos has held rights to conduct exploration in the C-8, C-12, and C-13 contract areas – including the latest Ahmeyim-2 well -- under production sharing contracts with Mauritanian state-owned SMHPM with a 90%-10% equity split.
UK firms Cairn and Sterling have separately made announcements this week about their prospects in the area.
Mark Smedley