Oil major, Eni SPA, has announced a major upgrade of the resource base in the Ndungu field, located approximately 130km off the coast and about 10km from Ngoma FPSO in the West Hub of block 15/06.

The Ndugu 2 appraisal well was drilled 5 km away from Ndungu 1 and stroke 40 metres of net oil pay (35 degrees API) in the lower Oligocene reservoirs with good petrophysical properties. An intensive data acquisition was performed to assess the full potential of the discovery, according to Eni.

Preliminary data collected on Ndungu 2 allows to boost to 800 – 1000 million barrels of oil equivalent in place of the field resources from the initial estimates of 250-300 million (post Ndungu 1), making Ndugu, together with Agogo, the largest accumulation discovered in Block 15/06 since the block award.

“The systematic and continuous infrastructure-led exploration (ILX) efforts conducted by Eni and its partners during the last three years, leveraged leading edge technology and allowed to unlock significant additional potential in the complex structural and stratigraphic traps inside Block 15/06.”
Eni Angola

The early production phase of Ndungu started in February 2022, through one producer well, and a second well is expected in the fourth quarter of 2022, maximizing the utilization of existing facilities in the West Hub. “In parallel, appraisal whilst producing will continue, to optimize returns and minimize risks.”

Ndungu field development is expected to be upgraded, owing to the significant increase of resource base. This follows a phased approach “to untap the overall potential in an optimal way from a financial perspective”.

Production at the Ndungu Field

In line with this, the Ndungu field development will initially contribute to extending and increasing the plateau of the Ngoma, a 100 kbopd zero-discharge and zero-process flaring FPSO.

Last month, Eni announced that further exploration and delineation campaign will be performed in the first half of 2022 with the aim to assess the full potential of the overall asset of Ndungu.

Block 15/06 is operated by Eni Angola with a 36.84 per cent share. Sonangol Pesquisa e Produção (36.84%) and SSI Fifteen Limited (26.32%) are the other partners of the Joint Venture operation.

Ndungu is the third start-up achieved by Eni Angola in Block 15/06 since last year, after Cuica Early Production and Cabaca North Development Project.

Eni is the operator of exploration blocks Cabinda North, Cabinda Centro, 1/14 and 28, as well as of the New Gas Consortium (NGC). In addition, Eni has stakes in the non-operated blocks 0 (Cabinda), 3/05, 3/05A, 14, 14 K/A-IMI, 15 and in Angola LNG.

This result also shows how Azule Energy, the recently announced independent joint venture that combines Eni and bp portfolios in the country, can count on a solid pipeline of new projects starting up over the next few years, including Agogo, Ndungu and PAJ oil projects in Blocks 15/06 and 31 respectively, as well as the NGC gas projects.

The Azule energy, is itself, a huge one, as it is expected to create the country’s largest oil and gas producer with an output exceeding 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day plus resources of 2 billion boe.