Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) has announced that the Banda-1 exploration well in the West Cape Three Points licence offshore Ghana has discovered oil in Cenomanian-aged reservoirs and that the Jobi-East-1 and Mpyo-3 wells, in Exploration Area 1 (EA1) onshore Uganda, have both successfully encountered oil in line with pre-drill expectations.

The Banda-1 well, located 9.6 kilometres southeast of the Odum discovery in the eastern part of the West Cape Three Points licence, has encountered Cenomanian turbidites over a gross vertical interval of 300 metres. This interval contains over 100 metres of low porosity sandstone and 3 metres of approximately 40 degree API oil pay.

The Atwood Hunter rig drilled Banda-1 to a total depth of 4,580 metres in water depths of 921 metres. On completion of operations, the well will be suspended for potential future use and the rig will move to complete the drilling of the Makore-1 well which is targeting Turonian age reservoirs in the south of the West Cape Three Points licence. The upper section of this well was drilled by the Eirik Raude rig during April.

Tullow has a 22.896% interest in the West Cape Three Points licence and its partners are Kosmos Energy (Operator) and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (30.875% each), the E.O.Group (3.5%), Sabre Oil & Gas Holdings Ltd (1.854%) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) (10% carried interest).

Commenting on Banda-1, Angus McCoss, Exploration Director, said:
“Banda-1 was our first wildcat designed specifically to investigate the potential of Cenomanian age reservoirs in West Cape Three Points. Finding some light oil in such a thick sandstone package is an encouraging first step, however the reservoir is poor quality at this location. The well results will now be integrated into the regional geologic model to re-evaluate the remaining potential in other prospects at this stratigraphic level within our acreage.”