Pecten International Co. has outlined plans in its effort to maintain oil flow in the Rio Del Rey basin off Cameroon in the Bight of Bonny.
Plans include development drilling this year and exploratory drilling late this year and early in 1993.
On the Mokoko-Abana concession earlier this year, Pecten Cameroon Co. renovated and expanded Platform C in South Mokoko field and Platform G in Abana field. Work on Platform G included expanding the production manifold and adding five well slots.
Also this year, Pecten drilled two infill wells from Platform C-C-15, placed on stream as an oil producer, and C-16, a water injection well.
Early in 1993, if Mokoko-Abana partners Elf Serepca and Cameroon national oil company Ste. Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) agree, Pecten expects to drill five infill wells from Platform G in Abana and one from Platform A in South Mokoko. All are expected to be oil producers.
Pecten Cameroon owns a 40% interest in the Mokoko-Abana concession. Cameroon's Ministry of Mines, Water Resources and Power awards exploration permits and production concessions in consultation with SNH.
EXPLORATION PROGRAM
Pecten and Elf each own a 25% interest and SNH 50% in eight exploration permits. Split into noncontiguous tracts, the permits cover about 900,000 acres in Cameroon, mostly offshore in the Rio del Rey basin.
Pecten in 1991 acquired 16,000 km of 3-D seismic data, most of it on the PH 59 exploration permit, a 100,000 acre tract acquired in August 1990 east of its Mokoko-Abana and Lipenja concessions.
Elf also acquired 7,500 km of 3-D seismic data on its PH 48 exploration permit, part of which is a north offset to its Kole concession. Kole is part of Elf's Rio del Rey production concession. Plans call for Pecten and Elf each to drill two wildcats on the tracts either late this year or in early 1993. More wells are expected to follow.
The Pecten-Elf-SNH combine also holds exploration acreage in northern Cameroon near Lake Chad. However, that area is relatively inactive.
OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
Pecten is producing 90 wells in the Mokoko-Abana concession area. Flow comes from 11 platforms on five fields, including Abana, East Abana, East Mokoko, South Mokoko, and Northeast Mokoko.
Mokoko-Abana oil went on stream in 1983 and peaked in 1985 at 50,000 b/d. By mid-1991, despite aggressive production surveillance, workovers, and gas lift, Mokoko-Abana production had declined to 27,000 b/d.
During 1990-91, Pecten completed an earlier discovery well in East Abana and drilled six development wells from the new 12 slot Platform K in about 160 ft of water. In September 1991, Pecten achieved Platform K production of 6,500 b/d of oil, increasing Mokoko-Abana production to 32,000 b/d, and lifting Mokoko-Abana's yearly average production to 28,000 b/d.
Pecten's plans for Mokoko-Abana in the next 2 years should hold production near 30,000 b/d for several years. However, Pecten said, new production achieved by more drilling and workovers is expected to only partly offset the natural production decline, so production from the concession area is expected to decline overall.
Cumulative Mokoko-Abana production is more than 100 million bbl of oil.
RIO DEL REY UPDATE
Late in 1991, operator Elf achieved production of about 10,000 b/d of oil in Itindi field on the Boa-Bakassi production concession, one of five tracts in Elf's Rio del Rey concession area.
Elf developed Itindi by drilling 13 wells from a 28 slot platform in about 40 ft of water.
In 1991, total Rio del Rey production averaged 107,000 b/d of oil among all partners.
Basin-wide, combined Pecten-Elf-SNH production totaled about 135,000 gross b/d from six production concessions covering more than 180,000 acres. Pecten's net share amounted to 37,000 b/d.
Together, Pecten and Elf have installed 43 platforms and drilled more than 300 wells on the Mokoko-Abana and Rio del Rey concessions.
Pecten owns a 24.5% interest in the Rio del Rey concession.
Production from Mokoko-Abana and from nearby Elf operated fields moves through subsea pipelines to storage vessels permanently anchored offshore at Kole and Moudi export terminals. From there, oil is trans-shipped to market by ocean going tankers.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
