Kosmos Energy is gearing up to spud its S-5 wildcat off Equatorial Guinea after fixing a Maersk Drilling rig for the job.

The US independent has taken the drillship Maersk Voyager to drill the exploration well on its operated Block S.

Fellow US independent Noble Energy has novated the unit to Kosmos after exercising a one-well option.

Upstream reported earlier this month that the S-5 probe is set to spud next month and, if successful, could be tied back to Kosmos’ Ceiba floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

Targeting 50 million boe of potential oil and gas resources, the well will appraise the G-13 oil discovery located in 1000 metres of water 20 kilometres south-west of Ceiba.

Chief executive Andy Inglis said in Kosmos' second quarter conference call recently that analysis of recently acquired seismic data has given a better understanding of G-13's geology and boosted its resource potential beyond the original 25 million boe.

Fresh seismic “has given a much clearer image of the depositional system that delivered reservoir sand into the prospect area (which) has enhanced our understanding of the trap model", he said.

“The new information has been key in identifying that previous wells were drilled on what we now believe to be the edge of the main reservoir channel, providing considerable upside,” he explained.

“This, together with the stratigraphic element, increases the resource potential to around 200 million boe gross for the field,” said Inglis, saying S-5 will test around 50 million boe of potential resource.

He said the economic cut-off for S-5 to be a viable project is around 50 million boe “based on all pre-front-end engineering and design work we have done.” If S-5 is successful, follow-up potential also exists.

The Maersk Voyager was used by Italian major Eni to drill the successful Akoma well off Ghana, where a gas condensate discovery was made.

The well proved an estimated volume between 550 and 650 billion cubic feet of gas and between 18 and 20 million barrels of condensate.

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Kosmos bags Maersk rig for EG wildcat