Improving geophysical and seismic understanding of pre-salts and identifying drilling and completions strategies to optimise recovery and reduce costs. 11th-12th December, 2013 Hilton Sandton Hotel, Johannesburg,
The geological resemblance of the pre-salt areas off the West Coast of Africa and the successful discoveries in Brazil have sparked interest from gas and oil companies and investors across the globe.
The potential within basins in Congo, Angola, Gabon, Namibia, West Coast Cameroon and DRC has the attention of world media and the industry. What is needed before the next stages of development can be made, is a solid understanding. The production from these basins should be large enough to justify the high pre-salt drilling and completions costs and provide an economic return on every well.
Since the oil discovery in the pre-salt layers of Angola and Gabon back in 2011, three companies have drilled test wells, but all yielding different results. To minimise risk and truly commercialise the utilization of these resources, operators need to match an enhanced geological and geophysical knowledge to accurately determine the locations of sweet spots, with an effective strategy for driving down expensive drilling and completions costs.
Day One will look at how pre-salt operators in West Coast Africa are utilising latest seismic technologies to see through the salt, and a deep enough geophysical and geological understandings to launch successful drilling programmes. The day will commence with a comprehensive geological and geophysical analysis of Angola: Lower Congo and Kwanza Basin Basin, West Coast Cameroon, Gabon, and Namibia to identify areas are large enough for potential development. This will be followed by analysing advancements in seismic acquisition, interpretation and processing to ensure the effective geophysical analysis. The day will finish drawing tried and tested transferable lessons from Brazil to understand if seismic technology from Brazil can be effectively transferred to pre-salt Africa.
Day Two will examine how to cut down the completions and drilling costs to ensure post-drilling commerciality and minimise risk. The day will start looking at how to optimise equipment selection, drive down drilling costs, and determine the most effective techniques for drilling through salt and deep water. This will be followed by case studies on identifying the optimal casing system for running long production casing strings in ultra deep wells, a comparison between water vs. oil based mud systems to determine the most effective and inexpensive options. Following that will be a discussion on optimal completion fluids and completions techniques. Last but not least, the congress will end with a discussion on how to overcome challenges in obtaining equipment and ensuring an effective emergency response strategy is in place.
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Image Source : Ed Schipul
