Anadarko announced its third major natural gas discovery this year in the Offshore Area 1 of Mozambiques Rovuma Basin at the Lagosta prospect. The discovery well encountered a total of more than 550 net ft of natural gas pay in multiple high-quality Oligocene and Eocene sands.p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Anadarko announced its third major natural gas discovery this year in the Offshore Area 1 of Mozambiques Rovuma Basin at the Lagosta prospect. The discovery well encountered a total of more than 550 net ft of natural gas pay in multiple high-quality Oligocene and Eocene sands.
"The Lagosta discovery, located approximately 16 miles to the south of the previously announced Barquentine discovery and 14 miles to the southeast of the Windjammer discovery, significantly expands this emerging world-class natural gas province," Anadarko Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Exploration Bob Daniels said. "The Lagosta discovery continues to validate our geophysical models, and we expect to keep the Belford Dolphin drillship in the basin for the foreseeable future to continue a very active exploration and appraisal programme, including at least one planned drillstem test in 2011.
"Although additional appraisal drilling will be required, we believe the three discoveries announced to date already exceed the resource size threshold necessary to support an LNG (liquefied natural gas) development, and we have assigned an integrated project team to begin advancing commercialisation options. Given the global LNG trade and its indexing to the global crude market, this resource can provide tremendous economic value for the people of Mozambique, the government and the partnership," added Daniels.
The Lagosta exploration well has been drilled to a current depth of approximately 13,850 ft in water depths of approximately 5,080 ft. The partnership plans to drill to a total depth of approximately 15,900 ft to evaluate a deeper zone. Once operations are complete at Lagosta, the partnership expects to mobilize the rig 17.5 miles to the southwest to drill the Tubarao exploration well, which also is located in the 2.6-mn-acre Offshore Area 1.
Anadarko is the operator of Offshore Area 1 with a 36.5 per cent working interest. Co-owners in the area are Mitsui E&P Mozambique Area 1, Limited (20 per cent), BPRL Ventures Mozambique B.V. (10 per cent), Videocon Mozambique Rovuma 1 Limited (10 per cent) and Cove Energy Mozambique Rovuma Offshore, Ltd. (8.5 per cent). Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos, ep's 15 per cent interest is carried through the exploration phase.
