Pursuant to last week’s blog, companies continue to have pleasant surprises in some of Africa’s newer plays.

Take Tullow Oil, for instance. The British independent confirmed Sept. 13 that its Owo-1 sidetrack, drilled in its Deepwater Tano license offshore Ghana, had “significantly extended” its light oil discovery in that well. “Results of drilling, wireline logs, and samples of reservoir fluids confirm that Owo is a major new oil field,” the company’s website reported.

The original well encountered 174 ft (53 m) of net pay, and the sidetrack, located about 2,000 ft or 600 m east of the discovery well, found an additional 52 ft (16 m) of net oil pay in the lower part of the same channel system. Pressure data indicate that the reservoirs are in communication, and there is also a condensate play beneath the oil play.

The well is in water depths of about 4,685 ft (1,428 m).

Currently plans for the well are to suspend it for future appraisal and development, and the Sedco-702 will move to the Onyina-1 exploration well, targeting a large Campanian prospect between the Tweneboa and Jubilee fields. P-90 reserves for the area are 250 MMboe, with P-10 reserves estimated at 1.4 Bboe.

According to AFP News, the find comes just three months before the Jubilee field, one of the largest finds in West Africa in the past 10 years, comes onstream. The news agency also notes that Ghana’s recent oil discoveries have created a border dispute with neighboring Ivory Coast.

Citifmonline.com reports that Head of Corporate Affairs at Tullow Oil Ghana, Tony Aubeng, claimed the find is “a major new oil field” and is “very significant in terms of the opportunities for commercial production additional to the Jubilee field.”