Eni successfully completed the production test on Minsala Marine 1 exploration well Offshore Congo

San Donato Milanese (Milan), 15  December  2014 – Eni  has successfully completed the production test on the  Minsala  Marine 1 NFW,  located in the Marine XII Block offshore Congo, 35 kilometers from the shoreline and 12 kilometers from the recent Nené Marine discovery. During the production test  the well delivered in natural flow in excess of  5,000  barrels of oil per day and 14 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from an opened section of 37 meters out of the 420 meters oil column identified in the discovery. The oil quality is 41 degrees API.

Eni preliminarily estimates the potential of Minsala Marine discovery to be about 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place, of which 80% is oil. The Company has scheduled an appraisal plan for the discovery and has begun studying the commercial development of its significant hydrocarbons reserves.

"The production test results has exceeded expectations and enables us to plan a fast commercial development of the important Minsala Marine find, similarly to what had been done at Nene’ Marine" said Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni.

In the last four years, Eni has been carrying out a targeted  exploration programme in the pre-salt geological plays of West Africa’s shallow waters, achieving successfull results. In this play, Eni has already discovered nearly 4 billion of barrels of equivalent oil in place, between Congo and Gabon. In the Marine XII permit specifically, there have been three discoveries: Minsala Marine, Litchjendily  marine and Nené Marine. These are all located in conventional waters close to existing infrastructure and can therefore be brought into production shortly and at competitive costs. 

Eni through its own subsidiary Eni Congo SA is Operator of Marine XII with a 65% share stake. Eni has been operating in Congo  since 1968  and currently produces  approximately 110,000 barrels of oil per day of equity production. Eni has been present in Sub Saharan Africa since the ”60s and presently is involved in exploration and production projects in Angola, Congo, Ghana, Gabon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Liberia. Eni currently produces around 450,000 of oil equivalent per day in Sub-Saharan Africa, due to successful and rapidly growing exploration activity.