RE: Namibia9 Feb 2018 08:46
Oil has been found in the walvis basin but up to now sub commercial. The area has been proven to contain everything needed to support a hydrocarbon accumulation so there is lots of potential hence the interest from many oil majors.
Wingat-1 exploration well results
Galp Energia announces that the Wingat-1 exploration well in the Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 23 in the Walvis basin, offshore Namibia, has been concluded and the results from the well indicated the presence of oil, although not in commercial volumes. The Wingat-1 well, spudded in March 25, was drilled in water depths of circa 1,005 meters and has reached a final depth of 5,000 meters. The well is currently being plugged and abandoned.
The Wingat well was initially planned to be drilled to a total depth (TD) of 4,127 meters, but because of the potential to drill deeper to test the presence of turbidite reservoirs and the opportunity to penetrate and to sample the main source rock, the consortium decided to go deeper, to a final TD of 5,000 meters. This decision was also supported by the increasing concentrations of hydrocarbon shows present in the well below of the depth of 1,500 meters.
The information obtained, coupled with the results of preliminary studies of all data collected from the well, allowed the consortium to identify two well-developed source rocks, which are rich in organic carbon and both are within the oil-generating window. Also, the well encountered several thin-bedded-sandy reservoirs that are saturated by oil. Four samples of this oil were collected and the analysis of these samples indicated the presence of light oil, 38º to 42º API, with minimal contamination. No water bearing zones were identified in the drilled section.
The fact that the source rock is in the oil window and generating liquid hydrocarbons of excellent quality confirms the source potential of the basin. As such, the results of Wingat-1 well provide important information that will help calibrating the next exploration steps in the Walvis basin. These source rocks present in the well can charge reservoir intervals of other prospects identified in license and migrate further a field.