Posts

AGM makes oil discovery off Ghana Gibraltar-registered player unearths find at its South Deepwater Tano (SDWT) tract

AGM Petroleum has made an oil discovery on its South Deepwater Tano (SDWT) block off Ghana, according to related company Aker ASA.

“We are pleased to announce that oil has been discovered in the AGM block,” Aker ASA chief executive Oyvind Eriksen said in the Norwegian company’s second-quarter results announcement on Thursday.

Gibraltar-registered AGM is controlled by Aker ASA’s main shareholder, Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke.

Aker ASA profile company Aker Energy, which is focused on Ghana, has acted as service provider on AGM’s batch drilling of two wildcats on the SDWT tract – Kyenkyen-1X and Nyankom-1X.

Although Eriksen did not say in which well the discovery was made, it is understood to have been in Kyenkyen-1X, as this was close to completion, with the other believed to be yet to start.

Upstream reported on Wednesday that AGM was wrapping up drilling at Kyenkyen-1X, with one source saying “operations are still ongoing” while another well-watcher said “they have stopped drilling”.

Eriksen continued: “When it comes to volume ranges, AGM will communicate this at a later stage. The drilling results, including quantification of volume, is subject to further analysis.”

AGM has been using the Maersk Drilling-owned drillship Maersk Viking on the probe, which is now set to move onto the Nyankom structure.

AGM is jointly owned by a consortium including Oslo-listed Petrica Energy (formerly AGR Energy), Gibraltar-registered Minexco and Ghana-based MED Songhai Developers.

Its Ghanaian partner in SDWT is Quad Energy, owned 100% by local businessman David Adomakah who is also a non-executive director at Norway’s Aker Energy, which holds the Deepwater Tano-Cape Three Points (DWT-CTP) block directly to the north.

Aker Energy has previously said it is seeking synergies in the development of prospects in both blocks.

One source familiar with Ghana suggested that a discovery on SDWT could be tied back to Aker Energy’s planned Pecan floating production, storage and offloading vessel off Ghana.

Upstream reported earlier on Thursday that a decision on which contractor will land a major order to supply the FPSO for the 330-million-barrel Greater Pecan project has been delayed by up to four months.

Rokke controls Aker Energy’s parent company Aker ASA and also owns resource company TRG, which itself has a significant stake in AGM partner Petrica.

On completing operations in SDWT, Maersk Viking is set to mobilise north to drill two wells for Aker Energy in DWT-CTP.

Maersk Drilling reported that in the first quarter of 2019, Aker Energy exercised two options – of 41 days and 49 days – on Maersk Viking in direct continuation of the rig’s current contract with AGM.

Aker ASA also said on Thursday that the third appraisal well drilled by Aker Energy in the Pecan area – Pecan South East – had hit hydrocarbons, but not of commercial quantities.

Another, Pecan South-1A, is estimated to hold between 5 million and 15 million barrels of oil equivalent. Original discoveries in the Pecan area are estimated at 334 million boe.

Following the appraisal drilling, the company estimates that there is upside to its earlier estimate of between 450 million and 550 million boe of contingent resources in the Pecan area.

Aker Energy is targeting approval of the plan of development and taking a final investment decision on Pecan in the second half.

Credit Source: https://www.upstreamonline.com/live/1825352/agm-makes-oil-discovery-off-ghana