Eni has announced a giant gas discovery at its Mamba South 1
prospect offshore Mozambique. The Area 4 discovery well encountered a total of 212 metres
of continuous gas pay in high-quality Oligocene sands, the Italian player said
in a statement on Thursday.
The well is located in water depths of 1585 metres about 40
km off Cabo Delgado coast in the northern offshore of Mozambique. It will be
drilled to reach an expected total depth of around 5000 metres.
After completion of drilling and testing activities, the rig
will move to drill the second commitment well, Mamba North 1.
Eni said it believes the discovery could lead to at least 15
trillion cubic feet of gas in place in the Mamba South Area, where the
potential of the Tertiary Play will be further drilled and assessed.
“These results exceed pre-drill expectations and confirm the
Rovuma Basin as a world-class natural gas province”, the company said.
“The outstanding volume of natural gas discovered will lead
to a large scale gas development with a combination of both export to regional
and international markets through LNG and supply to the domestic market”, the
statement continued.
Eni said the resource potential of the well makes it the
largest operated discovery in the Milan-based company’s history, and would open
“a new eastern front” in its African activities.
Eni is the operator of Offshore Area 4 with a 70%
participating interest. Co-owners in the area are Galp Energia (10%), Kogas
(10%) and ENH (10%, carried through the exploration phase).
In 2006 Eni was awarded a licence for the exploration of an
offshore area situated in the northern part of Mozambique, some 2,000
kilometres north of the capital of Maputo.
In March, the company announced a revised strategyto
spend $50 billion on upstream activitiesover the next four years,
including its prospects in Mozambique as well as Togo, Ghana, and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Earlier this month U.S. explorer Andarko Petroleum
Corporation raised its estimate of the amount of natural gas it has discovered
offshore Mozambique by two thirds, lifting hopes that East Africa could become
a major gas exporter.
It was unclear from Eni’s statement if the new discovery was
an extension of Anadarko'sBarquentine/Windjammer gas findin
adjacent Area 1, or if gas would flow to the same LNG plant that Andarko is
planning to build.