Mauritania roadshow out to attract explorers

By Dev George, Houston

Mauritania's Minister of Mines & Industry Ishac Ould Rajel and a delegation of Mauritanian government officials and oil company executives are out to tell the world's petroleum explorationists that the northwestern African nation has much to offer in oil and gas prospects. Presented by Global Pacific & Partners, the group announced to a packed house in Houston that everything is in place for foreign oil companies to join in the hunt for hydrocarbons both on- and offshore Mauritania.

Minister Rajel outlined the country's assets to a rapt audience, citing its democracy, political, economic, and social stability, and its improving infrastructure as an excellent environment for international petroleum operations. He pointed out that exploration began in the country in 1968 and that 13 wells have already been drilled there, 11 offshore, two onshore, with another currently being drilled by Woodside Petroleum and a second to follow its completion.

Of the country's sedimentary basins—the Mauritanian Coastal Basin, the huge interior Taoudeni Basin, the Reguibat Shield in the north and northwest, the Zemmour Basin, and Tindouf Basin—only the Coastal Basin has shown much promise to date, and it is here that the Ministry of Mines & Industry has delineated Mauritania's concession blocks: 1-9 offshore, 10-12 onshore. Of these, however, only Blocks 9-12 are open for production-sharing agreements with foreign operators. Blocks 1, 7, and 8 are held by a Dana Petroleum-leg joint venture and Blocks 2-6 are held by A Woodside Petroleum-led joint venture.

Considerable seismic has been shot offshore Mauritania between 1968 and 2000, including 54,200 km of 2D and 3,620 sq km of 3D, mostly centered on Woodside's Blocks 3, 4, and 5.

Trevor Wilson, general manager of Woodside USA, told the gathering that his company is very encouraged by what they have found in Mauritanian data and that they are particularly keen on the deepwater areas, where they are now drilling the first of two exploratory wells, Chenguette on the Khede Prospect of Block 4, in some 791 meters water depth, with an ultimate TD of 2,600 meters, and where they anticipate a 150-200 million bbl reservoir. The second, to be spudded immediately after Chenguette, is to be on the Corbine Prospect, in 1,200 meters water depth, and where they expect to find about 219 million bbl.

Wilson says Woodside has a total MSV expectation of 968 million bbl pre-drill that may ramp up to as much as 1.1 billion bbl in place. "All the right ingredients are there," he said, "an organic rich oil-prone source, mid-Miocene to late Cretaceous stacked channel and fan faces, and dynamic outbound diapirism. 3D amplitudes fit the structure and indicate the presence of reservoir faces, but HC phase and saturation are critical to success. It could be a major hydrocarbon province."

Woodside's Chenguette-1 was spudded on 1 April and is expected to take 45 days to TD. Undoubtedly there will be high interest in the results, particularly by Mauritania's government, which has established a very favorable legal framework and PSC to entice operators and would like not only to become self-sufficient in petroleum, but to be able to export it along with its current iron ore and fish products.