BW Energy has completed the first production well on its ongoing development campaign at the Dussafu licence, offshore Gabon.

The production team now has responsibility for the DHIBM-3H well. They are preparing to start it up in early April.

This is the first production well on the Hibiscus/Ruche Phase 1 campaign. The BW MaBoMo production facility drilled the well to a depth of 3,883 metres in the Gamba sandstone.

The Borr Norve jack-up drilled the well in 116 metres of water.

It began drilling at the start of the year with batch work on three Hibiscus wells. Another three conductors have been set on slots for the Ruche/Hibiscus fields.

The BW Adolo FPSO will process oil from this development phase alongside the Tortue production. Tankers will offload oil from the FPSO for export.

The operator has also commissioned the 20 km pipeline from the BW MaBoMo to the FPSO. Commissioning and start up of the new gas lift compressor for the six wells on the producing Tortue field will follow first oil, Panoro Energy said.

Panoro went on to say the Hibiscus and Ruche fields should provide 30,000 barrels per day of new production gross when all six wells were on stream. The Borr Norve has moved to the second well, DHIBM-4H.

Growth plans

“The successful completion of this first production well is a key milestone in our material organic growth plan towards production of 12,500 bpd net to Panoro when all six new Hibiscus Ruche Phase I wells are onstream,” said Panoro CEO John Hamilton.

“We are in the most active period of continual drilling in Panoro’s history”, he said. The company plans to drill “at least 10 wells” in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea over the next 12 to 15 months. This will “unlock significant potential in our diversified portfolio of producing assets”,  Hamilton said.