Total makes major gas discovery off the coast of South Africa

Total has announced that it has made a significant gas condensate discovery 175 kilometers off the southern coast of South Africa.

The Brulpadda well (‘Bullfrog well’) – located off the shore of Mossel Bay – is one of several highly anticipated exploration prospects for the company.

Total has previously indicated that the field could hold between 500 million to over 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

In a statement on Thursday (7 February), the energy company said that its Brulpadda well encountered 57 meters of net gas condensate pay in Lower Cretaceous reservoirs.

The well was deepened to a final depth of 3,633 meters and has also been successful in the Brulpadda-deep prospect.

“We are very pleased to announce the Brulpadda discovery which was drilled in a challenging Deepwater environment”, said Kevin McLachlan, senior vice president of exploration at Total.

“With this discovery, Total has opened a new world-class gas and oil play and is well positioned to test several follow-on prospects on the same block.”

Following the success of Brulpadda and confirmation of its potential, Total and its partners said that they plan to acquire a 3D seismic this year, followed by up to four exploration wells on its licence.

The Brulpadda well covers an area of 19,000 square kilometers, with water depths ranging from 200 to 1,800 meters, and is operated by Total with a 45% working interest, alongside Qatar Petroleum (25%), CNR international (20%) and Main Street, a South African consortium (10%).

Game-changer for South Africa

Minister of mineral resources, Gwede Mantashe, led a delegation to the Total Exploration and Production Southern Africa’s Deep Sea Stavenger Rig operations on Saturday (2 February).

Speaking on the day, Mantashe said that a major oil and gas discovery could be a game changer for the country in terms of the economy.

“We hope that we will discover oil so that we can reduce our dependence on imported crude oil.

“We will work with other government departments in giving the project all the support we can, because we believe that it will help support a turnaround in our economy,” he said.

Read: Finding oil off the coast of Mossel Bay could be a ‘game changer’ for South Africa