Bissau, Aug. 1, 2024 (Lusa) - Guinea-Bissau's first deep-water oil exploration borehole will be drilled on 8 September, the director general of state oil company Petroguin, Celedónio Vieira, told Lusa on Thursday.
At the moment, he said, the Guinean authorities, represented by Petroguin, are in talks with the company that owns an oil exploration vessel operating in Senegal so that it can start drilling in the country's offshore in September.
The hole, called Atum 1 X, will be drilled in block 2, ‘Sinapa’, through an exploration licence held by Petroguin and Apus Energia Guinea-Bissau, a consortium formed by Petromal, from the United Arab Emirates, and Lukoy, Russia's largest oil company, said Celedónio Vieira.
The director-general said, ‘Drilling is due to take place on 8 September, according to the latest timetable between Petroguin and the company that owns the ship that will be drilling. '
Celedónio Vieira also explained that the drilling is expected to take 45 days, after which, he said, it will take around 18 months to analyse the results to determine whether or not there is oil in the borehole.
If there is oil, further studies will be needed to determine whether or not it has commercial value, he added, considering that ‘there is still a long way to go’.
Petroguin's managing director is confident of the operation's success, given that the borehole to be drilled in Guinea-Bissau is located in the same geographical region where Senegal recently discovered oil.
Celedónio Vieira drew attention, however, to the project's complexity, given that the borehole will be drilled in deep waters at 3,100 metres.
‘Adequate, appropriate and modern technical drilling equipment is needed,’ he emphasised.
Celedónio Vieira said that Guinea-Bissau had already drilled 14 hydrocarbon prospecting boreholes offshore and four onshore (continental zone) since the 1960s, still during the colonial era, but without finding any commercially valuable oil.
The last oil exploration hole in Guinea-Bissau was drilled in 2008, he said.
MB/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
