Italian energy company Eni said further natural gas discoveries in the Mamba complex offshore Mozambique now take its gas in place to 75 trillion cubic feet as it plans a future LNG project similar to one being developed by Anadarko Petroleum of the US.
Eni said it was adding 6 Tcf of gas in place in the Mamba South 2 and Coral 2 delineation wells or Area 4, which are respectively the sixth and seventh wells drilled back-to-back.
"The resources exclusively located in Area 4 are now estimated at about 23 Tcf plus of gas in place and the full potential of the Mamba complex is 75 Tcf of gas," Eni said.
The Milan-based company plans to drill at least two further delineation wells, Coral 3 and Mamba South 3, and make a further assessment of the overall Mamba discoveries.
“These last successes further strengthen the potential of Area 4 on which Eni is studying the development plans of this huge gas reserve base,” Eni said in reference to the LNG project.
While Anadarko is in the engineering state of its LNG project from its more than 100 Tcf of discoveries in its adjacent Rovuma Basin licence area, Eni has revealed few details of its LNG ambitions.
Eni is the operator of Area 4 with a 70 percent participating interest. The other partners of the joint venture each holding 10 percent are Portugal’s Galp Energia, Korea Gas Corp., and the Mozambique national energy company.
Eni said the Mamba South 2 well was drilled in 1,918 metres of water and reached total depth of 4,300 metres. The well is located about nine kilometres east of Mamba South 1 and 50km off the Cape Delgado coast. The well encountered 60 metres of gas pay in high quality Oligocene reservoirs. “The discovery proved the existence of hydraulic communication with the same reservoir of Mamba South 1.
“The well flowed lean gas with excellent test parameters which led to the estimation of a sustained production rate of 140 million standard cubic feet per day,” the Italian company said.
