Statoil Wants Pre-salt Targets in Angola

http://www.petroleumafrica.com/read_article.php?NID=8013

Petroleum Africa

Monday, July 27, 2009

StatoilHydro said it is looking for Brazil type pre-salt formations off Angola. The company said that Angola’s pre-salt basin, which is similar to Brazil’s, open a new frontier in oil exploration in Angola several km below the ocean floor.

“We are actually looking for this famous pre salt that you can see in Brazil,” Bjorn Albert Rasmussen, head of StatoilHydro in Angola told Reuters in an interview. “This is a new opportunity,” he added.

Rassmussen said if viable, pre-salt drilling and exploration could change the face of the exploration game in Angola raising it to a whole new level. “In Angola the potential is great. When it comes to pre salt we do not know. It carries very high risk and we have to be aware of that,” said Rasmussen.

“Just like in Brazil, it will be very costly to drill these wells. A pre salt well in a favorable location might easily exceed $150 million.”

Brazil’s Tupi discovery, made in 2006, is estimated to contain recoverable reserves of 5-8 billion boe. Petrobras began first production from an extended well test in June, just three years after its discovery.

http://www.petroleumafrica.com/read_article.php?NID=8013