An extended flow period on 14 Februrary at the offshore Mauritanian appraisal well delivered up to 12,400 barrels of oil plus 11 million standard cubic feet of gas per day constrained by a 104/64 inch choke.

At last report, the Tiof-6 well test was in the main flow period and the well was flowing at a stable rate of about 9,150 barrels of oil per day in the main flow period constrained by a 72/64 inch choke. The gas production involved gas dissolved in the crude oil – no free gas was observed in this well.

“This is a very encouraging first oil flow from Tiof,” said Hardman’s recently appointed CEO and managing director Simon Potter.

“The Tiof reservoir sands tested in this well are considered to be of poorer quality than those at Chinguetti and we therefore expected significantly lower production rates than those achieved in the Chinguetti early development well. The flow rates we have achieved at Tiof-6 exceed our pre-test expectations.”

Hardman said while it stood by its assessment that Tiof had about 1 billion barrels of oil-in-place, the assessment of potentially recoverable oil was difficult in these types of reservoirs and would ultimately depend on the chosen development project.

“The results of this test will form a critical part of the assessment of the Tiof development,” Potter said.

The Tiof-6 well is intended to further appraise the Tiof oil discovery and will continue the evaluation of the Miocene channel sand system within the Tiof Field area as interpreted with 3D seismic.

The Tiof discovery is located about 90km west of Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital and 25km north of the Chinguetti Field. The Tiof-6 well is three kilometres west of the Tiof-1 discovery well and one kilometre east of Tiof-3. Water depth is about 1,165 metres.

Meanwhile operations were continuing on Chinguetti development wells, Hardman said.

Participating interests in Tiof include Woodside Group (operator) 53.846%, Hardman 21.6%, BG Group 11.63%, Premier Group 9.231% and Roc Oil 3.693%.