Following remarkable successes in the deepwater plays of South America, Sierra Leone is hoping to mirror the fortunes of Guyana, aiming for an exploration boom in its prolific oil and gas fields.
In recent years, the Guyana-Suriname basin has witnessed some of the most significant hydrocarbon discoveries, now amounting to over 11 billion-equivalent proven barrels, and billions more in potential discoveries.
The Sierra Leone Petroleum Directorate stated on LinkedIn, “Following recent successes in the deep water plays of South America, including the world-class Liza discovery in #Guyana, Sierra Leone is next in line for deep water #exploration success.”
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The Petroleum Directorate said that the MSGBC (off the coast of Senegal and Mauritania) and Guyana-Suriname basins, known for developing oil and gas from Cretaceous reservoirs, share a geological trend with Sierra Leone. The West African nation boasts a vast 64,000 km² of open acreage, ready to be explored in the upcoming Fifth Licensing Round.
The Directorate also stated, “Sierra Leone has more than 400 km of Atlantic coastline that can be tectonically reconstructed back to fit with the Guyana Basin, a truly World Class oil-rich conjugate twin.”
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Sierra Leone’s initial exploration ventures have proven promising, boasting an impressive 50% success rate from its initial drilling campaign. Eight wells have been drilled, resulting in four discoveries:
1. Venus B-1 yielded 14 metres (m) net oil pay in Cretaceous age sediments, exhibiting the presence of condensate.
2. Mercury-1 intersected 35m net oil pay in its primary objective, revealing a reservoir of light sweet crude with a quality of 32° – 42° API.
3. Savannah-1X successfully intersected 3m of oil pay in its primary objective.
4. Jupiter-1 uncovered 30m of condensate pay in the primary upper Cretaceous objective and encountered an Oil Water Contact (OWC).
These discoveries serve as a beacon of optimism for the potential of the Sierra Leone basin, which the Petroleum Directorate said is now one of the last remaining frontier exploration areas in West Africa.
The Directorate said estimates indicate, based on 3D seismic data over the SL-03-17 and SL-4A-17 deep-water blocks, that Sierra Leone’s Cretaceous deep-water plays hold prospective resources of approximately 2.5 billion barrels in numerous large stacked fans.
