Africa Energy will move ahead with its planned Gazania-1 wildcat well offshore South Africa after securing partner Eco Atlantic’s $20 million in capital requirements for its portion of the probe. The well will be drilled in Block 2B. Island Drilling semisubmersible Island Innovator has been contracted for the work and is expected to mobilize from its current location in the North Sea for the 45-day trip to South Africa.
The Block 2B joint venture plans to spud the well by October with drilling expected to last 30 days, including a full set of logs if the well is successful. The block has significant contingent and prospective resources in relatively shallow water and contains the A-J1 discovery that flowed light sweet crude oil to surface. Gazania-1 will target two large prospects 7 km updip from A-J1 in the same region as the recent Venus and Graff discoveries.
Block 2B is located offshore South Africa in the Orange Basin where both TotalEnergies and Shell recently announced significant oil and gas discoveries offshore Namibia. The block covers 3062 km2 approximately 25 km off the west coast of South Africa near the border with Namibia in water depths ranging from 50 m to 200 m.
The Southern Oil Exploration Corp. (Soekor) discovered and tested oil on Block 2B in 1988 with the A-J1 borehole, which intersected thick reservoir sandstones between 2985 m and 3350 m. The well flowed 191 B/D of 36 °API oil from a 10-m sandstone interval at around 3250 m.
Africa Energy has a 27.5% interest in Block 2B offshore South Africa. The block is operated by a subsidiary of Eco Atlantic which holds a 50% interest. A subsidiary of Panoro Energy holds a 12.5% stake, and Crown Energy AB indirectly holds the remaining 10%.