Italian energy company Eni has upgraded the resources by more than three times in the Ndungu field offshore the LNG-producing nation of Angola and said the move showed how improved technology can alter the profile and economic viability of a discovery.
Eni said the resource base in the Ndungu field, located about 130 kilometres (81 miles) off the coast of the southwest African country, had been re-assessed after further exploration.
The field is additionally about 10km from the Ngoma Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit in the West Hub of block 15/06.
The Ndungu 2 appraisal well was drilled 5km away from Ndungu 1 and 40 metres of net oil pay (35°API) in the Lower Oligocene reservoirs were confirmed with good petrophysical properties and in the hydraulic communication with the discovery well.
“An intensive data acquisition was performed to assess the full potential of the discovery,” explained Eni.
The preliminary data collected on Ndungu 2 has allowed an upgraded estimate to 800 million barrels of oil equivalent to 1,000 million barrels of oil equivalent in place in the field.
“This is an improvement from the initial estimates of 250-300 (post Ndungu 1), making Ndungu, together with Agogo, the largest accumulation discovered in Block 15/06 since the block award,” added Eni.
“The systematic and continuous Infrastructure-Led Exploration (ILX) effort conducted by Eni and its partners during the last three years, with the full support of ANPG and the Angolan Authorities, leveraged leading-edge technology and allowed to unlock significant additional potential in the complex structural and stratigraphic traps inside Block 15/06,” stated Eni.
The early production phase of Ndungu had already started last February through one producer well. A second producer well is expected in the fourth quarter of 2022, maximizing the utilization of existing facilities in the West Hub.
