A view for further exploration potential and its key technologies based on exploration results of deep water offshore West Africa

—To explore turbidite sand reservoir in offshore Gabon and Angola—

Abstract

Deep water offshore West Africa is the most prolific petroleum exploration and production area in the last decade. “Golden Triangle” consists of US Gulf of Mexico, Brazil Campos and West Africa and is well known as three world class most prolific and promising deep water E&P areas. Especially, deep offshore Niger delta and Congo fan are the most prolific amongst them. 3D seismic data associated with advanced interpretation and visualization technique supported by recent powerful computer capability as well as sequence stratigraphy concept have contributed very efficiently to deep water success in West Africa. An approach utilizing seismic multi-attribute is the essential element for reservoir delineation and risk minimization because turbidite sand is significantly heterogeneous and thus development well spacing/positioning should be optimized by integrated reservoir study. A seismic-well log study example in deep water offshore Gabon is briefly introduced in this paper.