OREANDA-NEWS. HRT Participacoes em Petroleo S.A. announces the spud of the Moosehead-1 well (2713/16-1) (“Moosehead-1”), the third offshore well in its exploratory drilling campaign. This well is targeting the Moosehead Prospect, located in Petroleum Exploration License 24 (“PEL 24”), in the Orange Basin, offshore the Republic of Namibia.

The Moosehead-1 well is located 197 km southwest of Luderitz, Namibia, and 100 km northwest of the Kudu gas accumulation. Moosehead-1 will test a Cretaceous age, 546 km2 4-way dip closure, mapped on a 3D PSDM seismic data set. The main objective of this well is to test the oil potential of Barremian-aged carbonate reservoirs, expected to be equivalent to the Brazil and Angola “pre-salt” reservoirs. Several source rocks are expected to be penetrated, including the Aptian source rock, which is anticipated to be oil generating according to HRT’s geochemical modeling.

Moosehead-1 well is in 1,727 m water depth and will be drilled to a projected total depth of 4,100 m by the Transocean Marianas (NYSE:RIG) semi-submersible rig. The total time estimated to complete the operations is approximately 53 days.HRT is the operator of 10 blocks offshore Namibia, which are contained in 4 Petroleum Licenses. GALP Energia (NYSE Euronext Lisbon: GALP), with 14% participating interest, is HRT’s partner to drill the first 3 wells of the current exploration campaign.