The Italian oil company Eni has made a new oil discovery in the Afoxé exploration prospect, located in Block 15/06, off Angola. The discovery is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million barrels of light oil

Eni said on Monday that the Afoxé-1 NFW well, which led to the oil discovery, is located in the southeastern area of ​​Block 15/06, approximately 120 km from the coast, 50 km southwest of Olombendo. FPSO and 20 km west of the recent Kalimba-1 discovery. The well was drilled in a water depth of 780 meters and reached a total depth of 1.723 meters.

According to Eni, Afoxé-1 NFW found that the liquid oil is of high quality (37 ° API) contained in Late Miocene sandstones with excellent petrophysical properties.

The well has not been tested, but intensive data collection has been carried out, which indicates a production capacity of more than 5.000 barrels of oil per day. The new discoveries near Kalimba and Afoxé now together represent a potential of 400 – 500 mboe of high quality oil and represent a new cluster that can be exploited together in a new development concept.

The afoxé discovery is further confirmation of the oil exploration potential still held in the southern part of Block 15/06, previously considered to be mainly gas-prone. Eni is planning to drill up to four new exploration wells in block 15/06 during 2019.

Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said: “Eni is committed to developing this discovery leveraging its best time-to-market, while at the same time launching an intense campaign that will fully support the company's medium-term organic growth. in the country."

Block 15/06 is developed by a Joint Venture formed by Eni (36,84%, Operator), Sonangol P & P (36,84%) and SSI Fifteen Limited (26,32%).

In November, Eni signed an agreement with Sonangol to expand the perimeter of offshore Block 15/06. With this agreement in place, the block now covers an additional 400 km2 on the west side.

Eni's block 15/06 is located around 350 km northwest of Luanda and 130 km west of Soyo, at depths between 200 m and 1.800 m. The developed fields Sangos, Cinguvu, Mpungi, Ochigufu and Cabaça SE are linked to two FPSOs installed in the block, Ngoma and Olombendo, with a total oil treatment capacity of 200 kbopd.

The Ngoma and Olombendo FPSO started production in November 2014 and February 2017, respectively.