A consortium led by Portugal’s Galp Energia and UK-based multinational Shell has confirmed “the existence of an active oil system” in Sao Tome and Principe, but without evidence that “it has a recoverable potential large enough to be commercial,” while promising to continue to assess the results of its surveys
The information was announced by the National Petroleum Agency of Sao Tome and Principe (ANP-STP) after what it said was “the safe conclusion” on 30 July of exploration operations of the ‘Jaca’ well in Block six of Sao Tome’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), operated by the consortium Galp STP and Shell STP.
“The Jaca confirmed the existence of an active petroleum system, but initial results indicate that there is no evidence that the prospect has a recoverable potential large enough to be commercial,” indicates a statement from ANP-STP that Lusa saw on Thursday.
“This result, considering a technical success, is very encouraging and the focus now is to continue to evaluate the new data collected from the block so that we can define the next steps,” the statement says, adding that “Jaca 1 is the first exploratory well in Block 6 of the Exclusive Economic Zone and was drilled by Maersk’s drill ship Voyager.”
The statement notes that the production-sharing contract for Block 6 was signed in 2015 and is in Phase II of the exploration period. The consortium is made up of Galp STP (operator) with a 45% participating stake, Shell STP with 45%, and ANP-STP, representing the state of Sao Tome and Principe, with a 10% participating interest.
