New Age, the operator of the Etinde block offshore Cameroon, has completed the drilling of the IM-6 appraisal well, and the result has been described as “disappointing.”

The IM-6 spudded on May 21. It was the first of two planned appraisal wells to be drilled in 2018 by the Etinde Joint Venture partners, using the Vantage-owned jack-up rig Topaz Driller.

The well was designed to delineate the size and extent of the Intra-Isongo stratigraphic sand traps as a primary target, with the Upper Isongo sand as a secondary target.

Bowleven, New Age's partner in the project, said that the well targets, while showing traces of gas were largely water saturated and water bearing. The partners have now decided not to drill the originally planned IM-7 well.

Instead, the drilling rig will be relocated to the backup location, IE-4, which lies to the east of the IM-6 well and northwest of the previously drilled IE-3 well.

The IE-4 well will target a previously undrilled sand package “Drillbit” of Intra-Isongo origin, which is believed to be analogous to the 410 sand package at the IM-5 location. Any discovery in this appraisal well, could prove up or derisk a further 0.2 to 0.6 tcf of resources (Drillbit, Bolt, Crowbar sites).

Eli Chahin, Chief Executive Officer of Bowleven plc, said: “Whilst it is disappointing that the IM-6 well did not make an additional commercial discovery, the data collected is vital in further defining the existing 410 intra-Isongo discovery.

“Specifically, after further analysis and reservoir engineering and modeling, we expect to be able to accurately delineate the location of the gas/water contact within the 410-wet gas reservoir and firm-up the reservoir volume.

“We now look forward to drilling the prospective IE-4 well which offers the potential to provide an increase to our discovered resource volumes, and derisk several other potential prospects.”