New Age spuds appraisal well on Cameroon's Etinde Block

LONDON -- Bowleven, the Africa focused oil and gas company traded on AIM, has announced the spud of the IE-4 appraisal well on the Etinde Block, Cameroon, by the block’s operator, New Age Cameroon Offshore Petroleum SA.

The IE-4 well is the second of two appraisal wells to be drilled in 2018. The Etinde Joint Venture partners have contracted the Vantage jackup rig Topaz Driller for this campaign. Drilling and logging operations of IE-4 is expected to take approximately 90 days in total with Schlumberger providing most of the drilling services.

The IE-4 well will target a previously undrilled sand package "Drillbit" of Intra-Isongo origin, which is believed to be analogous to the 410 sand package at the IM-5 location. Any discovery in this appraisal well could prove up or de-risk a further 0.2 to 0.6 Tcf of resources (Drillbit, Bolt, Crowbar sites).

It is expected that it will be required to drill to -2840 m True Vertical Depth Subsea (TVDSS) to fully penetrate the prognosed reservoir targets. A further ~50-m rat hole will be required to allow for logging sump. Well TD will be at -2,890 m TVDSS.

New Age is the operator of Etinde field, with a 37.5% working interest. Bowleven and Lukoil are partners with a 25% and 37.5% working interest, respectively. The Company intends to announce the final well results after the end of drilling and testing operations.