Sitting pretty: in Angola's Cabinda
Roc gets heavy in Cabinda
Australian company Roc Oil is celebrating an onshore heavy oil discovery in Angola’s northern Cabinda enclave with potential oil-in-place potential of 170 million barrels, reports said.
Early data from a sidetrack well on the Massambala-1 wildcat showed a 16-metre gross oil column with about 15 metres of net oil-saturated sand with good to excellent reservoir qualities.
The shallow oil accumulation is at a depth of about 400 metres, and the Massambala feature is mapped on 3D seismic data as a gentle four-way dip structure.
Roc said it was possible to recover 20% of heavy oil accumulations though 10% was a more regular rate around the world.
Roc's chief executive John Doran said: “After drilling the original Massambala well last month, there were two main concerns about the shallow oil accumulation: is it residual and, if not, is the oil too heavy to be produced via conventional heavy oil industry techniques?”
“The sidetrack tells us that the oil is not residual and, even if it is heavy, it may still be producible,” he said.
Doran said that Roc’s main target in Cabinda remained lighter crude, but that the company has enough exposure to heavy oils to develop the Massambala find.
Partners in the Cabinda South Block are operator Roc (60%), Force Petroleum (20%) and Sonangol (20%).
