Vaalco Energy has wrapped up drilling at the Etame West ET-14P exploration well offshore Gabon and found no commercial hydrocarbons in the target zone, despite encountering 10 metres of high-quality Gamba sands consistent with pre-drill geological predictions. The sands were found to be water-bearing rather than oil-bearing, ending the immediate exploration case for the well.
However, the company has not walked away empty-handed. Pending partner approval, Vaalco plans to sidetrack the upper portion of the wellbore to drill the ET-14H development well into the Main Fault Block of Etame — a known productive area — while plugging and abandoning the lower section. Operations are expected to be completed in April.
George Maxwell, Vaalco’s Chief Executive Officer, said the company had deliberately designed the well with this contingency in mind. “When we committed to drilling the Etame West exploration well, we knew there was the geologic risk of not encountering commercial sands but the size of the potential reservoir made it a risk worth taking. Furthermore, we purposely designed the well so we could still utilise the well bore to drill a development well into a known productive area if the sands were non-commercial,” he said.
Separately, Vaalco has spudded the ET-15 infill well on the Etame platform as part of Phase Three of its Gabon drilling programme. The ET-15 well is anticipated to significantly add to production capacity feeding the floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO) that has been operational on the Etame Block since 2022 following an extensive field reconfiguration. The FSO has helped the company achieve improved operational performance and production uptime.
Source: oilreviewafrica.com