This first ever Congress will cover improving seismic and geophysical understanding of Pre-Salts and identifying drilling and completions Strategies in Pre-Salt to reduce costs and optimise recover.

Improving Seismic and Geophysical Understanding of Pre-Salts and Identifying Drilling and Completions Strategies in Pre-Salt to Reduce Costs and Optimise Recovery

The striking geological resemblance between the pre-salt areas off the West Coast of Africa and the successful pre-salt discoveries in Brazil, have sparked interest from oil & gas companies and investors across the globe. 

The potential within basins in Angola, Namibia and the Gulf of Guinea have caught the attention of both the industry and the global media. However, what is needed before the next stages of development can be made, is a robust understanding of the commercial viability of West Africa's hottest and least understood pre-salt regions - in other words, will the production from these basins be large enough to justify the high pre-salt drilling and completions costs and produce an economic return on every well?

Since the oil discovery in the pre-salt layers of Angola and Gabon back in 2011, three companies have drilled test wells, but all yielding different results. To minimise risk and truly commercialise the exploitation of these resources, operators need to pair an enhanced geological and geophysical understanding to accurately identify the locations of sweet spots, with an effective strategy for driving down expensive drilling and completions costs.

With that in mind, from 11th-12th December, 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the first ever Pre-Salt West Africa Development Congress will take place.  The mission of the event, subtitled From Seismic to Drilling & Completion, is two-fold:

Day One will look at how pre-salt operators in West Coast Africa are utilising latest seismic technologies to see through the salt and a deep enough geological and geophysical understandings to launch an effective drilling programme.

The day will launch with a detailed geological and geophysical assessment of Angola: Kwanza Basin and Lower Congo Basin, Gulf Of Guinea: Gabon, West Coast Cameron and Nigeria and Namibia offshore to identify areas in the region that are big enough for potential development.

This will be followed by analysing advancements in seismic acquisition, processing and interpretation to ensure the effective geophysical analysis of pre-salts in Africa. The day will end drawing tried and tested transferable lessons from Brazil to understand if seismic technology from Brazil can be effectively transferred to pre-salt Africa.

Day Two will examine how to cut down the drilling and completions costs associated with pre-salt development to minimise risk and ensure post-drilling commerciality.

The day will start looking at how to drive down drilling costs, optimise equipment selection and identify the most effective techniques for drilling through deep water and salt. This will be followed by case studies on identifying the optimal casing system for running long production casing strings in ultra deep wells, a comparison between water vs. oil based mud systems to determine the most economic and effective options for pre-salt drilling.

Following that will be a discussion on optimal completions techniques and completion fluids. Last, but not least, the congress will end with a discussion on how to overcome challenges in obtaining drilling and completions equipment and ensuring an effective emergency response strategy is in place.  

For more information please visit: http://www.pre-salt-west-africa-2013.com/