The Chinguetti joint venture's budget blowout of US $705 million from the original US$625 million was due to the field’s complex geology, which increased the drilling scope and extra time needed to drill sidetracks, Woodside said this morning.
It also blamed further costs on difficulties in preparing the subsea flowlines for installations.
Chinguetti will be Woodside's first oil-producing asset outside of Australia. It is predicted to contain 123 million barrels of oil, with early production estimated at up to 75,000 barrels per day.
Meanwhile, Espadon-1 in PSC Area B, was plugged and abandoned on September 15, following analysis of wireline logs that indicated no significant hydrocarbons existed in the well.
Also in this permit is the Tevét-2 well, spudded on September 16 and now drilled to a total depth of 1510 metres with casing set.
Tevét-2 is 2.5 km south of the discovery well Tevét-1, in a water depth of 466 metres.
It is an exploration and appraisal well to both appraise the Tevét discovery and target a deeper exploration prospect beneath the Tevét Miocene reservoir. The planned total depth of the well is about 3,965 metres.
As of midnight last night, Woodside reported that preparations were underway to drill to the shallower of the two objectives.
Project partners in Chinguetti and PSC are: Woodside (47.83%); Roc Oil (3.25%); Hardman Resources (19.01%); UK's BG Group plc (10.23%); and Premier Oil Plc, also of the UK (8.12%) and the Mauritanian government (12%).
