TotalEnergies is running simultaneous flow tests in a pair of wells on its huge Venus oil discovery offshore Namibia, according to head of exploration Kevin McLachlan. The supermajor currently has two rigs involved in appraising Venus — the drillship Tungsten Explorer, which it partly owns, and the semi-submersible drilling rig Deepsea Mira — in the prolific Orange basin.
MacLachlan told delegates at the BEOS event — organised by GESGB and AAPG — on Tuesday that “two DSTs are ongoing”, but did not go into detail. However, it has been reported that the flow tests are being carried out on the Venus-2A appraisal well by Deepsea Mira and on the Mangetti-1X probe by Tungsten Explorer. The latter well made a major discovery at the shallower Mangetti prospect, and successfully drilled deeper to hit a northern extension of Venus. It is this deeper Venus section of this well that is being tested.
McLachlan pointed out that TotalEnergies has already carried out two successful drill stem tests on Venus, as it gathers more data to incorporate into a development plan for the ultra-deepwater scheme. Satellite data indicates hydrocarbons have so far flowed to the surface — as evidenced by flares — at the Mangetti-1X location on two occasions this month, 18 and 21 March. On Venus-2A, flares began to be spotted on satellite data yesterday, on two separate occasions.
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