Offshore Gabon Exploration Well Finds Water Instead of Oil as Etame Drilling Program Continues
An exploration well drilled offshore Gabon has failed to discover hydrocarbons, according to the operator, which said the drilling was part of ongoing efforts to expand resources in the country’s offshore fields.
The step-out well was drilled within the Etame Marine License, where the operator is carrying out a multi-well drilling campaign aimed at sustaining production and identifying additional reserves.
Beyond Gabon, the company also operates offshore projects in Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea, and is evaluating plans to deploy two new floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) across its regional portfolio.
Drilling results from the Etame West ET-14P exploration well revealed roughly 10 meters of high-quality Gamba sands, consistent with earlier geological expectations. However, the reservoir was found to contain water rather than hydrocarbons, making the section non-commercial.
Following the results, the drilling team will plug and abandon the lower section of the well.
Engineers now plan to drill a sidetrack into the upper section of the borehole to develop the ET-14H well within the main Etame fault block, pending partner approval. Completion of the development well is targeted for April.
Company executives said the project carried known geological risks, but the potential scale of the reservoir justified the exploration effort.
They added that the well was designed with flexibility, allowing the borehole to be repurposed as a development well in a proven producing zone if commercial hydrocarbons were not encountered.
