Drilling operations on the Bamboo-1 well on the Ntem Concession, offshore Cameroon, have begun, junior oil firm Sterling Energy reported Monday. Sterling said that Murphy Cameroon Ntem confirmed the start of drilling operations on the well using the Ocean Confidence (DW semisub) rig.

The Bamboo prospect is a basin floor fan target within an Upper Cretaceous play. Sterling said a series of stacked fan targets have been identified and will be intersected by the Bamboo-1 well, with the primary objective estimated to have a mean un-risked, gross prospective resource of 422 million barrels of oil and 170 billion cubic feet of gas – making for a total of around 450 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The well, which is located approximately 35 miles off the coast of Cameroon, has an estimated target depth of 13,780 feet and will be drilled in a water depth of approximately 5,250 feet. Drilling operations are expected to take around 60 to 70 days. Murphy Cameroon is the operator of the Ntem Concession, while Sterling has a 50-percent working interest in it. Murphy is paying Sterling's share of the costs for the drilling of the Bamboo-1 well, Sterling said.