AFRICA`S NONPRODUCING COUNtries took steps in 1997 toward assessment of their hydrocarbon potential or, in some cases, first significant output of oil and gas.
Chad
Chad`s first commercial hydrocarbon production seemed several years away in 1997.
The Chad and Cameroon governments planned to apply to the World Bank for loans totaling $115 million to finance their 3% of the equity investment in companies that will own and operate a crude oil pipeline from three oil fields in southern Chad to an export terminal at Kribi, Cameroon.
An Esso Exploration & Production Chad Inc. group planned to build a 650 mile, 30 in. heated pipeline to move heavy oil from Kome, Miandoum, and Bolobo fields and a central treating facility in Chad`s Doba basin to a tanker terminal at Kribi, Cameroon.
The fields, with combined reserves of 900 million bbl of oil, are 350 miles south-southeast of Chad`s capital, N`Djamena. About 300 wells 5,000 ft deep would be drilled. Interests are Esso and Ste. Shell Tchadienne de Recherches et d`Exploitation each 40% and Elf Hydrocarbures Tchad 20%. The system could start up as early as 2000 at 200,000-250,000 b/d.
The companies also hope to develop 12 million bbl Sedigi oil field, northeast of Lake Chad near the Niger border and about 200 miles north-northwest of N`Djamena. They would eventually build a pipeline to a 3,300 b/d refinery to be built in N`Djamena to be operated by Ste. d`Etude et d`Exploitation de la Raffinerie du Tchad. The plant would support local transport, power, and other uses.
Eritrea
Having split from Ethiopia in 1993, Eritrea expected 1998 to be a pivotal year for oil and gas.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp.`s exploration of a salt basin in the Red Sea off Massawa and Edd was expected to culminate with the drilling of three wells in 1998.
The 6.7 million acre Zula Block (two wells) and 2.3 million acre Edd Block (one well) are 175 miles west of oil and gas production in Yemen`s Marib-Jawf basin and more than 250 miles southeast of the undeveloped Suakin Miocene gas/condensate discovery in the Sudanese Red Sea.
Agip in late 1997 took a 30% interest in Zula Block in exchange for 50% of Agip`s interest in Agip-operated Jenein Nord Block in Tunisia.
Mozambique
Mozambique attracted high exploration interest in 1997, but no new discoveries were announced.
Most blocks in force were located along the southern two thirds of the country`s Indian Ocean coast.
Scimitar Hydrocarbons drilled the first two onshore wildcats in two decades in the Mozambique basin, but both Bandua-1 and Garabega-1 on the Buzi-Divinhe Block were nonproductive. More drilling was planned in 1998.
A group led by ARCO was exploring the Temane onshore and Sofala and M10 offshore blocks. Sasol also held an interest in the onshore Mazenga Block.
BP was studying the potential of 80,000 sq km in the Zambeze River delta off Ouelimane. South Africa`s Sasol and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos de Mocambique were developing Pande gas field.
A unit of Lonrho plc held a 38,000 sq km area in the Rovuma basin along Mozambique`s northeastern coast and the border with Tanzania. The company undertook detailed geological and geophysical studies, including reprocessing of earlier seismic data, geologic field work, and geochemical analyses. It said the studies confirmed the basin`s prospectivity and indicated good potential for hydrocarbon accumulations and was seeking to farm out to realize an enlarged work program of data acquisition.
Sao Tome
The Democratic Republic of Sao Tome & Principe reached agreement with a Louisiana company to handle its oil and gas affairs.
The government of the four-island nation believes it holds rights to 70,000 sq miles in the Gulf of Guinea. It was assessing boundary proposals in late 1997. The next step was approval by the United Nations and Gulf of Guinea Commission. Sao Tome borders Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon, all of which have oil and gas production.
Environmental Remediation Holding Corp., Broussard, La., was helping the former possession of Portugal to attract attention to its potential.
Sao Tome Island lies 200 miles south of the Nigerian coast and 140 miles west of Libreville, Gabon. Water depths are thought to range mostly from 3,000 ft to 10,000 ft.
ERHC`s relationship grew out of the island nation`s desire to protect its ecology while it sought to develop hydrocarbon resources.
Sudan
Significant commercial production remained at least 2 years away for Sudan in 1997, but operations in the Muglad basin were gaining critical mass despite U.S. sanctions against participation by U.S. firms.
Gulf Petroleum Co. of Qatar planned to start exports of low sulfur crude oil from Adar/Yale field in south-central Sudan during 1997 by trucking it 750 miles to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Gulf, which signed a maintenance agreement with the Sudanese government in 1996, planned to drill more wells in the field and possibly build a small refinery at Melut for local needs.
Adar/Yale field, with an estimated 182 million bbl of reserves, is in the Melut basin about 400 km east of Heglig, Unity, and other fields being developed by another group.
That group, known as Sudan Project Consortium, included Arakis Energy Corp. (State Petroleum Corp.) 25%, China National Petroleum Co. 40%, Petronas Carigali of Malaysia 30%, and Sudapet Ltd. 5%.
The group`s operating entity, Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co., drilled 14 wells in the first 9 months of 1997 on its 12.2 million acre concession.
The El Bakh 100a exploratory well in the Heglig Development Area was proved capable of flowing at more than 15,000 b/d of 36° gravity oil at a drawdown of 10% from 17 m of net pay in two sands in Cretaceous Bentiu. It was the highest-potential producing well drilled to date on the 12.2 million acre concession.
Preliminary data from several wells drilled on the Heglig Block indicated multiple zones of potential in the Cretaceous Bentiu, Aradeiba, Zarqa, and Ghazal formations.
The consortium let contracts for $335 million in pre-coated steel line pipe and $1.2 billion for pipeline construction. It expected to start construction in late first quarter 1988 of a 1,000 mile, 28 in., 250,000 b/d pipeline from the fields to Port Sudan. Construction was to be completed by fourth quarter 1999.
New players were arriving on the scene in the Muglad basin. They included Total, with two large blocks south and southeast of the Sudan Project Consortium, International Petroleum Corp. with 29,412 sq km Block 5A just east of Unity field, and China National Petroleum Corp. with Block 6 extending from west of Heglig field to Sudan`s border with Chad.
Red Sea Oil Corp., an IPC affiliate, relinquished the Delta Tokar and Halaib offshore blocks along Sudan`s Red Sea coast in 1997.
 |
Ivory Coast shelf drilling in the Gulf of Guinea is aimed at oil and gas targets in Lion and Panthere fields. Photo by Ken Childres, courtesy of United Meridian Corp.
