OREANDA-NEWS. Eni has made a new high impact discovery at Agulha exploration prospect, in Area 4, offshore Mozambique.

Preliminary estimates show that the Agulha structure could contain 5 to 7 Trillion cubic feet of gas in place. Eni and its Area 4 Joint Venture partners are finalizing the assessment of the discovery and planning the appraisal strategy.

Agulha well, which led to the discovery, is the tenth well drilled back to back in Area 4, where exploration has achieved a 100% rate of success. Agulha was drilled in 2,492 meters of water and reached a total depth of 6,203 meters.

The well is located in the southern part of area 4, approximately 80 kilometers off the Cabo Delgado coast, and was drilled to assess new exploration targets and to test the hydrocarbon potential of geological sequences which are older than the ones drilled in the Mamba complex.

Agulha encountered about 160 meters of wet gas pay in good quality Paleocene and Cretaceous reservoirs.

The discovery opens a new exploration play in the southern part of Area 4 where the drilling of three additional wells is foreseen in 2014.

Eni is the operator of Area 4 with a 50% indirect interest owned through Eni East Africa, which holds 70% of Area 4. The other partners are Galp Energia (10%), KOGAS (10%) and ENH (10%, carried through the exploration phase). CNPC owns a 20% indirect participation in Area 4 through Eni East Africa.