In 2012, the partnership completed processing of the 348 km2 Ocean Bottom Cable 3D seismic survey that was acquired over the whole Ebok/Okwok/OML 115 area in late 2011. The new data was used to design an appraisal program to determine the optimal development plan for the field. In late 2012, the JV spudded the Okwok-10 appraisal well to confirm oil potential within a previously undrilled fault block. The well reached a total measured depth of 4,117 feet and successfully encountered 72 feet of net oil pay in the D1 reservoirs that are in production at the nearby Ebok field. The Partners subsequently drilled a planned side-track well into a lightly explored deeper fault block and encountered a further 89 feet of net oil pay in the LD1 series sands.

The results of the appraisal drilling campaign led the partnership to submit a Field Development Plan (FDP) in late 2013, and the plan was approved by Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources in January 2014. In early 2015, Oriental installed a wellhead jacket and drilled the first development well in the field, in anticipation of the production facilities. The Okwok-13 well was drilled as a horizontal producer into the LD1 series sands in the Fault Block 3 (FB3) area tested by the OKW-10ST. It encountered the targeted LD1-B Lower with a gross section of 1,856’ containing 1,525’ of net oil pay. Reservoir porosity and permeability were excellent, and the well was completed and tested. A maximum oil rate of 5,400 bopd was recorded and a high well productivity index was established.

The results of the early development drilling were integrated with increased knowledge of similar reservoirs form Ebok field to optimize the field development strategy and Oriental Energy Resources filed a revised FDP in December of 2017.