Located in the Rio Muni Basin, West Africa, the well is located some 180 km southeast of Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, and approximately 75km north of the Amerada Hess-operated oilfields in Block G.
The well is targeting Tertiary channel sands within a stratigraphic trap identified by high-resolution 3D seismic, with the potential to contain proved and probable recoverable oil reserves in the order of 116 million barrels.
While the prospect contains a fair amount of risk Roc has viewed the well as one of the company’s greatest possible developments this year.
“For Roc, Bravo-1 is a potential company-maker. However, we should never lose sight of the fact that it is also a wildcat exploration well testing a stratigraphic play concept in deep water offshore West Africa,” said Roc CEO John Doran.
“Because of this, Bravo-1 has a risk profile which is somewhat higher than that which is usually considered to be appropriate for a company of ROC’s size - which is one of the reasons why we have farmed out to Pioneer.”
As reported yesterday Roc Oil has executed a Farmout Agreement where Pioneer will earn a 20% interest in Block H by paying for 70% of the cost of Bravo-1 and the cost of its retained 15% interest in a second well to be drilled in Block H in 2005.
After the Pioneer farmin has been completed, the Block H joint venture will consist of The Atlas Group (Operator) 45%, Pioneer 20%, Sasol 20% and Roc 15%.
