French oil major Total has made a significant gas condensate discovery on the Luiperd prospect, located on Block 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin, 175 kilometres off the southern coast of South Africa.
This discovery follows the adjacent play opening Brulpadda discovery in 2019, which proved a significant new petroleum province in the region.
Total started drilling the Luiperd-1X well in late August 2020, using the Deepsea Stavanger drilling rig.
The rig was mobilized from Norway to South Africa in July and arrived during August.
Announcing the discovery on Wednesday, Total said that the Luiperd well was drilled to a total depth of about 3,400 meters and encountered 73 meters of net gas condensate pay in well-developed good quality Lower Cretaceous reservoirs.
Following a comprehensive coring and logging program, the well will be tested to assess the dynamic reservoir characteristics and deliverability.
“We are very pleased with this second discovery and its very encouraging results, which prove the world-class nature of this offshore gas play”, said Arnaud Breuillac, President Exploration & Production at Total.
‘’With this discovery and the successful seismic acquisitions, Total and its partners have acquired important data on the Paddavissie fairway, which will help to progress development studies and engage with South African authorities regarding the possible conditions of the gas commercialization”.
The Block 11B/12B covers an area of 19,000 square kilometres, with water depths ranging from 200 to 1,800 meters.
It is operated by Total with a 45 per cent working interest, alongside Qatar Petroleum (25 per cent), CNR international (20 per cent) and Main Street, a South African consortium (10 per cent), where Africa Energy holds interest.
Commercialization of gas instead of new well
Commenting on the new discovery offshore South Africa, CEO of Africa Energy said that the JV has decided to commercialize the gas found instead of drilling another exploration well.
Garrett Soden, Africa Energy’s President and CEO, commented: “The Luiperd discovery reconfirms this world-class exploration play with substantial follow-on potential. The net pay encountered in the Luiperd target objective is significantly larger than the main reservoir at last year’s Brulpadda discovery. The Block 11B/12B partners are conducting a drill stem test to measure flow rates over the next few weeks.
“Due to the success at Luiperd, the joint venture has decided to proceed with development studies and engage with authorities on the commercialization of gas instead of drilling another exploration well in this program”.
