Commercial oil swerves ‘disappointed’ Tullow in Liberia

After vigorous work of finding oil, Irish-based Tullow Oil Plc failed to discover oil in commercial quantity offshore Liberia.

According to Tullow, the Montserrado-1 well made a non-commercial oil discovery.

Tullow, in a statement November 9, 2011 announced that the “Montserrado-1 exploration well, offshore Liberia, has made a non-commercial oil discovery in Late Cretaceous reservoir sands. This result is an important exploration breakthrough, establishing a working hydrocarbon system in the Liberian basin.”

Tullow, also the main operator at Ghana’s Jubilee oilfields, says the well was drilled in block LB-15 to a total depth of 5,400 metres and encountered good-quality, water-bearing sands in the main objective. In a deeper secondary objective, approximately 8 metres of hydrocarbon pay was intersected and a sample of light oil was recovered.

As a result, disappointed Tullow says “The well is being plugged and abandoned and the drillship is being mobilised to Sierra Leone to drill the Mercury-2 appraisal well and the Jupiter exploration well on block SL-07B-11.”

The company has a 25.00% working interest in the licence and is partnered by the operator, Anadarko Petroleum (47.5%) and Repsol (27.5%).

Commenting on the development, Angus McCoss, Exploration Director, said “Whilst this wildcat well made a sub-commercial discovery at this location, we have gained critical insights which we will now integrate with our extensive 3D seismic data for follow-up drilling in our highly prospective Liberian acreage. We now look forward to the drilling of the high-impact Jupiter and Mercury-2 wells in Sierra Leone.”

By Ekow Quandzie