Panoro Energy ASA and BW Energy have announced a significant new oil discovery with good reservoir quality at the Bourdon prospect, located on the Dussafu Marin Permit offshore Gabon in which Panoro holds a 17.5 per cent participating interest.

The well was drilled to a total depth of 4,135 metres with the Borr Norve jack-up rig. Evaluation of logging and pressure data confirms that approximately 34 metres of net oil pay in an overall column of 45 metres has been encountered in the prolific Gamba reservoir formation. This is the largest hydrocarbon column discovered to date at Dussafu.

 “We are very pleased with the outcome of our latest drilling success on Dussafu at the Bourdon prospect. Once the final data from the well and an appraisal side-track, which may be drilled, is available we will work to delineate the extent of this exciting new discovery and provide an update on estimated resources. What is apparent even at this early stage is that we have potentially established the foundation for a new development cluster on the block, which holds multiple additional prospects and leads.  

Bourdon is the final operation in the current Dussafu drilling campaign that has now resulted in four significant oil discoveries and eight new production wells across the Hibiscus / Ruche hub which, in addition to the six pre-existing wells at the producing Tortue field, has increased total gross production on the block to around the 40,000 bopd level.” John Hamilton, CEO of Panoro, said.

 “The Bourdon appraisal well again confirms the significant resource potential of the Dussafu licence, which holds multiple additional prospects,” said Carl K. Arnet, CEO of BW Energy. “We will now carefully review the drilling results, but initial data indicates the potential for establishing a new development cluster with a production facility following the MaBoMo blueprint. We are evaluating a second sidetrack to further appraise the discovery”. 

The discovery is located approximately 15 kilometres west of the BW Adolo FPSO and 7.5 kilometres southeast of the MaBoMo production facility. The discovery will enable the Company to book additional reserves not included in its 2024 Statement of Reserves.