Cairn has announced the results of the FAN South-1 well in the South Fan prospect offshore Senegal (illustration: Cairn)

Cairn has announced the results of the FAN South-1 well in the South Fan prospect offshore Senegal. The Stena DrillMAX drill ship performance continues to be excellent and operations have been safely and successfully completed ahead of schedule and under budget following drilling and wire line logging operations.

The well encountered hydrocarbon bearing reservoir (Lower Cretaceous) and oil samples were obtained. Preliminary analysis indicates 31° API oil quality. Further work is being undertaken to integrate this discovery with FAN-1 to establish the potential commerciality of the deep water, basinal resource seen in these two wells.

FAN South-1 is located in ~2,175 metres (m) water depth, ~90 kilometres (km) offshore in the Sangomar Deep Offshore block and 30 km south west of the FAN-1 exploration well. The well reached Total Depth of 5,343 metres, targeting dual prospects: an Upper Cretaceous stacked multi-layer channelised turbidite fan prospect and a Lower Cretaceous base of slope turbidite fan prospect, similar to the FAN-1 oil discovery in 2014. FAN South -1 is being plugged and abandoned.

The rig is now moving location to commence operations at the SNE North exploration prospect, 15 km north of the SNE-1 discovery well and the most northerly location yet tested, on trend with the highly successful SNE field. SNE North is targeting a prospective volume of more than 80 mmbbls of total resource in multiple objectives. The well is located in ~ 900m water depth and the projected total depth of the well is 2,800m.

Simon Thomson, CEO of Cairn Energy PLC says, “FAN South is our tenth well in Senegal in the last three years and our second well to encounter oil in the deep portion of the basin, adjacent to the FAN discovery. The results of FAN South will be integrated with FAN-1 and SNE to help the joint venture’s ongoing evaluation of the large, deep water basin potential offshore Senegal.”

“As planning for the phased development of the SNE field moves ahead, we will shortly commence operations on the SNE North prospect which has the potential to enhance our total resources in Senegal,” adds Thomson.

Tags: Cairn, Stena Drilling