Leni Gas & Oil plc confirmed the commencement of drilling operations with the jackup Ocean Columbia (250' ILC) at the Eugene Island Field in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Further to the brief delay announced on February 7, the rig has now been moved from its previous operations at Eugene Island-51 to Eugene Island-184 (EI-184). The rig is now stationed over the EI-184 platform in approximately 88 feet of water and the legs have been lowered ready to commence operations to side track the well from a depth of approximately 7,600 feet.

The current operation, A-2ST01, is to sidetrack the existing A-2 well, in order to intersect with the Tex-X2 sandstones reservoirs. Drilling and evaluation is estimated to take three to four weeks. If successful, the well will be completed for production. The target fault block has an estimated mean recoverable reserve of 0.5 million barrels of oil within the Tex-X2 target level at a depth of approximately 13,000 feet subsea. A second sidetrack is also expected to be undertaken to the deeper Tex-X3 reservoir.

LGO holds a 7.25 percent working interest in the EI-184 and adjacent leases which are operated by Marlin Energy LLC.

Tags: Leni Gas & Oil Plc