Abstract

The discovery of the Jubilee field in the Tano Basin of Ghana opened a new play in the deep water of the Atlantic transform margins. The field is a late Cretaceous combination structural-stratigraphic trap associated with topography created by the transform tectonics during the opening of the Atlantic. Prior to the drilling of the discovery well, the African transform margin had seen very little deep-water exploration with only nine wells drilled over a margin more than 2000 km (1243 mi) long. The field was discovered in June 2007 with the Mahogany 1 well, which encountered 98 m (322 ft) of high-quality oil pay in a Turonian-aged fan sequence trapped in a combination structural-stratigraphic trap. Subsequent to the discovery, accelerated appraisal and phased development resulted in first production in November 2010. The field is currently producing more than 100,000 BOPD and has a planned peak production of 120,000 BOPD. The discovery has resulted in an industry-wide exploration campaign of over 50 wells in the last 8 years. These have resulted in a number of additional discoveries and to date at least one additional development. This chapter describes the exploration play concept and the geology of the field.