"RussNeft" has discovered Africa.

Political instability in North Africa determines the oil workers to force the development of other regions of the Dark Continent. Thus, "RussNeft" has reported that next year it’s going to start drilling in the license block 11 in Mauritania. "RussNeft" entered this project about five years ago – soon after in Mauritania there was produced the first commercial oil in the history of the country. However, only now, for a number of reasons, the works change into an active phase. It is worthwhile noting in this article that today all oil, produced in Mauritania, is produced in the shelf area. Until quite recently in the land areas there were not made any significant discoveries. At the same time the studies of the shelf area, which is adjacent to block 11, turned to be very encouraging. As it was reported to “Oil and Capital” in press-service of “RussNeft”, in this part of water area there were drilled more than 50 deep exploratory wells and discovered seven oil and gas deposits with recoverable reserves up to 70 million tons of conventional fuel. French Company “Beicip-Franlab”, which in 2008 accomplished modeling of Mauritanian -Senegalese sedimentary basin, valued its total recoverable reserves at 6.23 billion tons of conventional fuel, of which 2,33 billion are within the boundaries of block 11. "Even with the successful ratio of 10% in the interior of block № 11 there can be found deposits with the ultimate reserves up to 233 million tons of conventional fuel", - the Company notes.
“RussNeft” joined Mauritanian project in the end of 2006. This project became part of business development strategy of the Company: around the same time it purchased interest in the projects "Zykh - Govsany" and "Binagady" in Azerbaijan, checked the markets of Kazakhstan, Algeria, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, claimed an interest in property of "Yukos" in Slovak “Transpetrol”. Interest in Mauritania was quite obvious – in February 2006 in this country there was produced first oil.
Subsequently the project was brought to a halt for some years. In autumn 2010 the founder of "RussNeft", Mikhail Gutseriev, has confirmed that Mauritania is of interest for the Company, and in the beginning of 2011 has reported that it carries out geologic exploration in the country. Finally, in July it became known that "RussNeft" is going to start exploratory drilling in its Moorish area (works will be performed by "Integra").

FIRST ATTEMPTS

Coastal license block No 11   29.14 m2 in area is located in Mauritan-Senegalese sedimentary basin in the western part of the country. The operator of the block is International Petroleum Grouping (IPG) incorporated in Mauritania, which in the beginning of 2002 signed a production sharing agreement with the government of Mauritania. As of the moment IPG belonged to group MAOA, one of the largest family corporations of Mauritania, 48% - to Technology Investment and Exploration Limited (TIEL), incorporated in the Guernsey Island. According to the available data among the major shareholders of the latter there was “Bashneft” (see “Surprises of the African Shelf”, O&C No 3, 2003). According to the data “RussNeft” advised to “O&C”, today the company is a “beneficiary and legal owner of 54% of IPG shares”. How come that the controlling interest passed over to Mikhali Gutseriev’s company, is not known for sure.
The PSA for block No11 between IPG and the government of Mauritania includes three stages. During each of these stages the operator is committed to perform a certain volume of seismic operations and to drill not less than two exploration wells with minimal depth of 3000 m. On completion of each stage IPF undertakes to return to the state 25% of the area of the explored block.
 “RussNeft” did not take part in the first stage which began in July 2002. At this stage aeromagnetic survey was performed. The results of its interpretation showed that in the coastal part of the block, 70-80 km to the west of the ocean shore there is located the sedimentary basin Tanit, where further exploration work is to be focused.

Besides, by February 2003 the well Tanit-1, 4300 m deep, had been drilled at the block,  and it became the first well at the territory of the country for almost a 30-year period. According to infromation from “RussNeft”, the location of the well (70 km northwards from Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania) was chosen on the basis of the data of microleptonic survey performed in 2000-2001. According to the data of Africa Energy Intelligence the well Tanit-1 was drilled by Bashneft”. And, as far as one can judge from the absence of information, no significant results were achieved.  It was reported earlier, that microleptonic method applied by Russian oilmen permits in a very short time to spot a well with 80% probability of hitting an oil-bearing formation. It must be said, though, that the scientists doubted the theoretical basis of this method.
At the second stage which had lasted from July 2006 through to July 2009 there were carried out 2D seismic operations (covering 2320 linear meters of seismic profiles), preliminary assessment of potential HC-resources of Tanit basin. Besids, to make more precise the location of exploration wells, there was performed soil vapor survey at the area of 170 km2   (in the north of the block) and at the area of 256 km2 (in the vicinity of the well Tanit-1). Besides, there were drilled three core parametric  holes with total depth of 2075 m. “Drilling of the wells confirms structural (depth) imaging made on the basis of seismic data”, underlined “RussNeft”. On completion of the second stage 25% of the territory of the block was returned to the state (its south-eastern part which had been acknowledged a no-prospect area in terms of hydrocarbons).

THE EXPLORATION SURVEY IS INTENSIFIED 

The third stage of the project actually began in July 2009, but only now it enters its active phase. "Information, accumulated during the previous stages, allows to determine the further direction of works. This will be an exploratory drilling to potential deep-lying hydrocarbon traps in the western water area of sedimentary basin “Tanit”, as "Oil and Capital" was said in press-service of "RussNeft". From July 2011 to May 2012 the Company is going to conduct a 3D seismic survey on the territory of 200 km2 in the western part of block (with supervisory control of field works), data processing and interpretation, as well as processing and re-interpretation of materials in 2D. Next year "RussNeft" is going to drill on this block two exploratory wells. "One of them (1300 m deep) lies in the crest of structure screened with high-amplitude, tectonic deformation from the east and north. The western flank of the structure opens in the direction of sedimentary basin downwarping towards the Atlantic Ocean, which is a favorable factor for the migration and accumulation of hydrocarbons here", - the Company said. The second well (5000m deep) will be drilled in the coastal part of basin down to the carbonate deposits of Jurassic period, its location will be determined based on seismic data.

PRO AND CONTRA

Summing up the above said one may note that the project of “RussNeft”  is intersting from several points of view. One of its advantages is, first of all, the mentioned above exploration of Mauritanian-Senegalese sedimentary basin which implies availability of substantial hydrocarbon reserves. A representative of the Institute of Geo-informational Analysis of the Earth Ivan Railian had earlier confirmed to our magazine that mobile hydrocarbon migrate from the territory of Marocco to the north of Mauritania and further to the Atlantic shelf of the country. Another big advantage of block 11 is its relative proximity to the large oilfields already discovered (Chinguetti, Banda, Tiof, Tevet). And on top of it Mauritanian oil is geographically closer to American and European markets as compared with the Angolese or Nigerian oil and it may be transported to these markets by supertankers.
Nevertheless, it is too early to speak about the prospects of “RussNeft” producing oil in Mauritania: no major discoveries has yet been done in the onshore part of the country, and its hydrocarbon potential  is rather questionable. We may point out that according to the available data the results of seismic operations, performed by Brimax Petroleum eariler at the neighbouring onshore block 12 proved to be disappointing. Let us hope that “RussNeft” will be luckier in Mauritania.

IS THE BEST YET TO COME?

For about two decades Mauritania was considered to be unpromising for oil. Interest to the mineral resources of the country grew since 1990, when Australian oil companies arrived there. In 2001 in the Mauritanian shelf, which is 90 km away from the shore, there was discovered the first deposit - Chinguetti. Then from 2002 till 2005 in the country there were discovered four other deposits - Banda, Tiof, Tevet, Labeidna with preevaluate total inventory of 40,8-65,5 million tons o.e.
The field development consortia headed Australian Woodside Petroleum, which in Autumn 2007 has sold all its Mauritanian assets to Malaysian Petronas. This decision, not least of all, was conditioned by suspicion of Woodside corrupt local projects.
Meanwhile, in February 2006 in Chinguetti deposit first oil was produced. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), initially in Chinguetti there was produced about 30 thousand barrels per day, and by the end of 2006 the production level reached 75 thousand barrels. However, in 2007 the production rates began to fall because of “geologic complexity”. Last year in Chinguetti there was extracted only 7,4 thousand barrels per day, the production forecast for 2011 is 5 thousand barrels per day. The oil workers can hardly cope with “geologic complexities”, which can hardly be solved within two – three years, thus, the field production in Chinguetti will be stopped...
At the same time nothing is known about the plans of putting the new fields of Moorish shelf on line. This is partly explained by their modest reserves, as well as by the fact that gas prevails in the discovered deposits.
Today the Government of Mauritania associates its major oil hopes with the exploratory survey of basin Taoudeni in the West of the country. The licensing was carried out here in the mid-2000s, and such companies as Total, Repsol and Wintershall took part in it. However, there are no deposit discoveries by now...