Shell has announced the discovery of gas under a layer of salt in deepwater off the coast of Gabon
Shell added that the frontier exploration well Leopard-1 had found around 200 metres of net gas pay in a pre-salt reservoir.
Leopard-1 is located in Licence BCD10 around 145 km off the Gabonese coast. It was drilled in water 2,110 metres deep to a total vertical depth of 5,063 metres. Shell, which has 75 per cent of the licence and China’s CNOOC carrying the remaining 25 per cent, said that it would now carry out further tests to try to establish how much gas the field holds.
Andy Brown, upstream international director at Shell, said, “Shell has been exploring in Gabon for over 50 years. This latest deep water discovery is a testament to the innovation of our explorers in pursuing new plays.”
