Kosmos Energy and its partners have made a new gas discovery within the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project, located at the maritime border of Senegal and Mauritania, in the Atlantic Ocean.

The new gas discovery was made through the drilling of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim-1 well (GTA-1 well) by the Ensco DS-12 rig on the eastern anticline within the unit development area. The exploration well intersected nearly 30m of net gas pay in high-quality Albian reservoir after it was drilled in nearly 2,500m of water,  to a total depth of 4,884m.

The GTA-1 well is located about 10km inboard of the Guembeul-1A and Tortue-1 wells.

Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Project to begin production in 2022

Kosmos Energy said that the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Project is on track to produce its first gas in the first half of 2022. The GTA-1 well, which has been designed as a future producer, will be utilised for further optimisation of the development drilling plans for the project, said the company.

Kosmos Energy chairman and CEO Andrew Inglis said: “The GTA-1 well confirms our expectation that the gas resource at Greater Tortue Ahmeyim will continue to grow over time and could lead to further expansion of this world-scale 10 MTPA LNG project.

“In addition, Kosmos’ process to sell down its interest to 10 percent has received considerable interest from the industry, with initial bids expected over the summer, and transaction conclusion anticipated by year end.”

The company said that the Ensco DS-12 rig will be now used for the drilling of the Yakaar-2 appraisal well in Senegal. The drilling is expected to begin in the coming weeks and following that, the  Ensco DS-12 rig will be engaged for the Orca-1 exploration well in Mauritania, which is likely to spud late in the third quarter.

Kosmos Energy is partnered in the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project by BP, SMPHM, and Petrosen. BP is the operator of the offshore gas project, which aims to exploit 15 trillion cubic feet of gas that are estimated to be in place in the Tortue and Ahmeyim fields.