Yaounde, Cameroon Africa. (Cameroon News) – Bowleven has once again started work on its exploration well off the Douala basin Sapele-1.

Bowleven, an oil and gas company listed at the London Stock Exchange has kicked off work on drilling a sidetrack to its Sapele-1 well in the Douala basin, offshore Cameroon.

The drilling, which commenced with the Noble jack-up rig Tommy Craighead, will officially review the Deep Omicron oil discovery that had been keyed in on in the Sapele-1 exploration well.

DeepSea Oil Rig - Bowleven Cameroon Gulf of Guinea Operates such Rig

The company had been forced to discontinue its upstream reported drilling of the well when a hurdle came up in the form of an unexpected gas kick.

The investigations in Block MLHP-5 of the Etinde permit went down a total depth of 4733 metres but high pressure gas in the Cretaceous zone was highly excessive for the jack-up to manage safely so the bottom-hole section was cemented.

The sidetrack will be drilled to about 3682 metres, or 4761 metres in measured depth, from about 2 kilometres south-east from the target in the original vertical well.

Bowleven also said it would “spud the Sapele-2 well in the middle of this month, after contracting jack-up rig Vantage Sapphire”.

The company said it would announce its interim results for the six months to 31 December 2010 on 28 March.