Cairn Energy reports 'very encouraging' results from offshore Senegal well

Oil and gas explorer Cairn Energy reported that it received “very encouraging” appraisal results from its offshore well in Senegal.

The rig performance and operations at the VR-1 well have been completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

The FTSE 250 company said that the well is about 5km west from the line of wells drilled to date, including the SNE-1 discovery and the appraisal results will be used to plan the first phase of development of the lower 500 series reservoirs that are the better connected, more tabular with highly productive sands and where water-flooding should yield recovery factors of 30% or more.

It said that this confirms the predictability of the mapped reservoir over a wide area giving confidence to its reservoir engineering models and the VR-1 well has confirmed 1C proven resources for the field.

The deeper carbonate exploration targets were encountered as expected with indications of hydrocarbons at the base of the well in tight formation, but is not currently viewed as commercial by the company.

The well encountered the targeted lower 500 series reservoirs in the oil column, which confirmed reservoir presence, fluid contacts and fluid quality in line with the results from the previous wells and preliminary analysis indicated the lower 500 series reservoir quality is better and slightly thicker than previously encountered.

Chief executive Simon Thomson said: "VR-1 is the sixth successful appraisal well on the SNE field and has encountered some of the best quality reservoirs found to date, some 5km from the original SNE-1 discovery well.

“Resource numbers will be updated later this year following completion of appraisal operations. The drilling programme is currently ahead of schedule and significantly under budget. We look forward to commencing operations on SNE-6."