Panoro Energye announced an 89% increase in 2P oil reserves at the Dussafu Production Sharing Contract (Dussafu PSC), offshore Gabon.

A mid-year update report from independent reserves auditor Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc. (NSAI) on certain fields located within the Dussafu PSC revealed 2P gross reserves have increased by 31.2 MMbbls, compared to those reported at year-end 2018.

John Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer of Panoro, said, “We are very encouraged by the continued upward revision of reserve estimates and will continue to progress the development potential at Dussafu.”

NSAI has revised estimates for Tortue reserves based on production to date and provided new estimates for reserves at the Ruche and Ruche NE fields. NSAI has calculated the following estimates for the total gross economically recoverable oil reserves as at June 30, 2019, derived from the assumed production from six oil wells at the Tortue field and six oil wells at the Ruche and Ruche NE fields:

• Proved (1P) reserves of 43.5 MMbbls
• Proved + Probable (2P) reserves of 66.3 MMbbls
• Proved + Probable + Possible (3P) reserves of 86.4 MMbbls

The increase in reserves is firstly due to an increase in the 2P gross remaining reserves at Tortue by 5.8 million barrels, approximately 16% higher compared to year end 2018 and secondly the addition of new 2P gross reserves at Ruche and Ruche NE amounting to 25.4 million barrels.

The Dussafu Marin Permit is a Development and Exploitation license with multiple discoveries and prospects lying within a proven oil and gas play fairway within the Southern Gabon Basin. To the north west of the block is the Etame-Ebouri Trend, a collection of fields producing from the pre-salt Gamba and Dentale sandstones, and to the north are the Lucina and M’Bya fields which produce from the syn-rift Lucina sandstones beneath the Gamba.

Dussafu is operated by BW Energy Gabon and Panoro’s current interest in the license is 8.33%. There are five oil fields within the Dussafu Permit: Moubenga, Walt Whitman, Ruche, Ruche North East and Tortue. The latter three fields were discovered by Panoro and JV partners in the last seven years.

The development of the Dussafu fields now is underway, with production from two wells at the Tortue field having started in September 2018. Oil is produced from the Gamba and Dentale reservoirs at Tortue into a leased floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Adolo via subsea trees and flowlines. Production is currently in the middle of the range of 10,000 to 15,000 barrels of oil per day. Phase 2 development activities are planned for 2019 and 2020 with up to four additional development wells to be drilled at the Tortue field.

Interpretation of recent 3D seismic data has confirmed several large Dentale prospects and numerous Gamba prospects in addition to the already discovered resources. Certain of these prospects will be targeted in the planned 2019-2020 drilling campaign.