Savannah Petroleum Plc makes an oil discovery at its Kunama-1 exploration well in Niger, the company said July 11.

Kunama-1 is the third consecutive discovery Savannah has made in its maiden exploration campaign in the R3 portion of the R3/R4 PSC Area in the Agadem Rift Basin, South East Niger.

Preliminary results based on the interpretation of the available data set (which includes wireline logs, fluid sampling and pressure data) indicate that the well has encountered a total estimated 9 m (29 ft) of net oil bearing reservoir sandstones in the E1 and E5 reservoir units within the primary Eocene Sokor Alternances objective.

Wireline logs indicate the reservoir properties to be good quality and the available data indicates light oil equivalent to the Amdigh-1 well and consistent with offset wells along trend and the depth/API trend observed across the basin. Oil samples from the E1 and E5 reservoir units have been taken and returned to surface using wireline testing equipment.

The well was drilled by the GW 215 Rig to a total measured depth of 2,460 m (8,070 ft), and encountered the main objective targets at, or near, their prognosed depths. The well took a total of 14 days to reach target depth, and all operations are expected to be completed within 23 days of spud. This compares with a pre-drill expectation of 22 days to reach target depth and 30 to 35 days to complete all drilling operations. No significant geological or drilling hazards were encountered.

Kunama-1 is currently being suspended for future re-entry. Consistent with standard industry practice in the ARB, a production test is expected to be performed on the well as part of a batch campaign using a dedicated test rig. This extended well testing program is currently being planned for later in the year and the company intends to provide further details in due course. Following testing, a downhole completion assembly to Amdigh-1 is expected to be installed so as to enable the well to function as a production well in the future. Savannah does not expect to provide a discovered resource and volumes report until its expected well test program has been completed.

“This is clearly an exciting time for Savannah and our stakeholders,” Andrew Knott, Savannah Petroleum’s CEO, said. “The Kunama discovery, following on from Amdigh and Bushiya, provides further encouragement for our plans to establish an early production scheme in Niger, which we expect to be able to provide an update on later in this quarter.”