Afren

La Noumbi

Afren holds a 14 per cent interest in the La Noumbi permit.  The La Noumbi permit covers 2,830 sq km and lies adjacent to - and on trend with - the world class M'Boundi field, which is currently producing over 50,000 bopd and has reserves in excess of 250 mmbbl. Several wells have been drilled on the block with good oil shows and/or oil produced on test (the Tie-Tie well was discovered in 1982 and flowed 1,689 bopd). These wells were drilled without the benefit of modern good quality seismic data. M'Boundi, one of the largest onshore fields discovered in recent years in West Africa is reservoired in the Vandji sandstone and the same play will be a primary target in La Noumbi.

Operations update

2D seismic acquisition was completed in the early part of the year resulting in a total of 940km of new, good-quality seismic data. The data has been combined with reprocessed older 2D seismic data acquired in the 1980s by previous operators to provide thorough seismic coverage of the most prospective areas of the block. The Doungou-1 exploration well was spudded on 13 August and reached a total depth of 2,602m on 26 September 2007. This is the first exploration well drilled by the current Joint Venture. The well encountered good oil shows at several levels but the reservoir quality in the primary Djeno/Vandji formation target was poor due to low permeability. The well was plugged and abandoned.

Preliminary interpretation of the new seismic data set has demonstrated that several attractive prospects are mapped at a variety of stratigraphic levels. Although technical evaluation is ongoing, Afren anticipates that one or two exploration wells will be drilled in first quarter 2009, subject to rig availability.