Sasol in 1st Onshore 3D Seismic in Mozambique
South Africa’s Sasol announced October 6 that it has conducted 3-D seismic exploration onshore for the first time in Mozambique.
Data has been gathered from a 115 km2 area in the Inhassoro field, part of Sasol’s production sharing agreement (PSA) territory where it is drilling 13 oil and gas development wells. Poland’s Geofizyka Torun was contracted to acquire 2D/3D seismic data using specialised trucks. “Future well locations can be optimised based on the generated images,” Sasol indicated.
Sasol’s international upstream vice president John Sichinga said that the seismic data “will significantly enhance our understanding of the structure of the oil accumulations through better resolution and more defined characterisation of the reservoir. While initial results appear encouraging, it is still too early to give further detail.” It has previously conducted 3-D seismic surveys offshore Mozambique – 1,836 km2 in the M10/Sofala and 2,100 km2 in blocks 16/19 – but that this was its first onshore. Its programme now moves on to Sasol’s Pande field where 42 km2 of 3D seismic will be acquired.
Photo credit: Sasol
Sasol meanwhile said it has made “significant progress” with its Mozambique PSA drilling.
Sichinga said that the first two wells have been completed: “The tests conducted thus far have produced encouraging results. During the course of the drilling of the second well, we encountered previously unknown accumulations of hydrocarbons within the development and production area, which indicate the presence of both gas and oil.” Sasol issued a discovery notice in respect of this second well.
Initially, it is expected that most of the output will be destined for the Mozambique market, to boost electricity provision and support the industrialization of the country, with construction expected of a power station next to the site where existing gas production from offshore fields in Mozambique is fed into a pipeline to South Africa. “The first phase of the PSA licence area development proposes an integrated oil, LPG and gas project adjacent to Sasol’s existing Petroleum Production Agreement (PPA) area,” the company said in a statement.
John Fraser