Recent Discoveries Offshore Douala Basin

Tiziana Luzzi-Arbouille, Eric Schmid, and Theodhora Piperi
IHS, Perly-Geneva, Switzerland

The Douala Basin is mainly located onshore and offshore Cameroon. To the west and southwest, it extends into the territorial waters of Equatorial Guinea.

Proven reservoirs are the syn-rift to transitional Mundeck Formation (mainly Lower Cretaceous), comprising non-marine sandstones and arkoses of fluvial origin, Upper Cretaceous Logbaba and Tertiary N’Kapa and Souellaba formations of mainly fan and channel sands enclosed in offshore slope and basin mudstones. Trapping styles are dominated by unconformity and stratigraphic types.

Since the first exploration activity in the 1950’s, 62 new-field wildcats have been drilled in the basin, of which 22 resulted in discoveries. Most of the activity has taken place in Cameroon as the first wells in Equatorial Guinea were drilled only in 2003. After a low level of activity in the 1990’s, exploration has intensified, mainly offshore. Since 2002, 14 new-field wildcats have been drilled in shallow and in deep waters, with a success ratio exceeding 40%. Most discoveries were made in Miocene sandstone reservoirs, which appear to be the primary target. The main hydrocarbon type is gas and condensate, but the presence of oil was confirmed in Coco Marine 1 in Cameroon and interpreted in the Benita I-2 well in Equatorial Guinea.

Hydrocarbon finds such as Belinda, Benita and Yoyo, fill to some extent the gap in the series of deepwater discoveries in this part of West Africa, between the Niger Delta to the north and the Rio Muni Basin to the south. Further exploration is planned offshore Douala Basin and development options are being reviewed. The newly-established LNG plant on Bioko Island could provide an outlet for the discovered gas.

AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa 2008 © AAPG Search and Discovery