Lukoil will pursue one mandatory exploration well before 2013 on one of several promising structures on the licence but will leave Venus — dubbed Lion by the block’s other partner, Nigerian independent Oranto — for a later date.
Drilled less than 500 metres from the SL-5 border and logging 50 feet of net hydrocarbon pay in 750 metres, Venus was not declared commercial by Anadarko, but substantially derisked the Liberia-Sierra Leone basin.
