Eni dishes on offshore Republic of Congo find

Eni released details on Thursday of the pre-salt discovery offshore the Republic of Congo which it had announced last week in its third-quarter report. The Italian integrated energy company reported its exploration well in the Nkala Marine Basin had hit a 240-metre column of hydrocarbons.

The Nkala Marine 1 had been spud in June 2015 at a water depth of 38 meters using the jack-up West Ariel leased from global offshore rig provider Seadrill, and is believed to have reached a total drilling depth of more than 3,000 metres.

Eni said that tests from the well put the flow rate at an estimated 300,000 cubic metres (10.6 mcf) per day of gas and condensates. The company further stated the wildcat is estimated to have tapped between 250 million and 300 million barrels of oil equivalent in place.

The Nkala Marine field sits within the Marine XII block, which lies around 19 kilometres offshore Congo. Eni has estimated the block to contain 5.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Eni holds a 65-percent operating interest in the block through its Congolese subsidiary, together with private UK company New Age (25 percent) and Congo’s state-run Societé Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (10 percent).