OREANDA-NEWS. October 10, 2013. BG Group announced it had successfully completed a drill-stem test in the Pweza gas field offshore southern Tanzania, concluding an intensive appraisal programme in Block 4.

The Pweza field is approximately 70 kilometres off the Tanzania coast in some 1 400 metres of water. Initial results from a drill stem test on Pweza-3 confirmed both the excellent properties of the Tertiary section reservoir, including flow and connectivity, and BG Group’s understanding and modelling of the field’s geology.

The Pweza-3 test, the first done in Block 4, flowed at a maximum 57 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, constrained by equipment. Importantly, the test demonstrated that development wells could flow at significantly higher rates and that the Pweza reservoir is potentially the most prolific in BG Group’s Tanzania portfolio.

BG Group Chief Executive Chris Finlayson said: “Our acreage in Block 4 around the Pweza, Chewa and Ngisi discoveries is now fully appraised and tested, with resources in the order of 4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. The work done demonstrates the excellent quality of these fields and that they can be developed as a northern production hub to feed a potential LNG export project.”

This Pweza well test also confirmed the robustness of BG Group’s recently announced total gross resource in Tanzania of some 13 tcf of gas.

The Deepsea Metro-1 drillship will now move south to Block 1 where it will drill a further appraisal well on the Mzia discovery.

BG Group as operator has a 60% interest in Blocks 1, 3 and 4 offshore Tanzania, with Ophir Energy holding 40%. The partners are now evaluating 3-D seismic survey data to help identify offshore targets for a new exploration programme in 2014.