Independent oil and gas company Corcel plans to kickstart a 326-km line 2D seismic data acquisition program in H2, 2025, with the expectation of drilling a new exploration well in Angola’s Block KON 16 approximately 12 months later. The company made the announcement during a Corcel-sponsored pre-conference workshop on September 2, hosted ahead of the Angola Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition – which takes place September 3-4.
As operator of Block KON 16 – situated in Angola’s onshore Kwanza basin -, Corcel will use both new and existing seismic data to support future drilling activities. The company has received seven legacy 2D line datasets – a 1970s vintage dataset - from Angola’s upstream regulator the National Oil, Gas & Biofuels Agency since its acquisition of the block, as well as six modern 2D seismic lines – collected in 2010 by TGS and acquired by Geokinetics. The reprocessed data was received by Corcel in April 2025 and allows for the identification of post-salt and pre-salt prospects.
“KON 16 has one well that was drilled in 1960: Tuenza-01. We also have 100% coverage of high-resolution eFTG data acquired in 2024 in partnership with Metatek. Utilizing all those data points, we are able to identify both post-salt and pre-salt prospects. This year we will be acquiring over 300-km line of 2D seismic,” stated Richard Lane, COO, Corcel.
Looking ahead, Corcel plans to fully integrate geological workflow using all available technical data. This includes 1970s vintage 2D, 2010 vintage 2D, 2024 eFTG data, regional reports as well as well and seismic data outside of KON 16.
“We have to look at wells beyond KON 16 – you cannot just look at your own license. There are a lot of pre-salt and post-salt prospects high-graded. The plan is simple: we need to shoot seismic data. We aim to fill the gaps where we feel that we have interesting prospects. Our plan is to shoot the seismic data this year, process and interpret in Q1, 2026 and then within 12 months, drill an exploration well,” Lane added.