24th Jun 2014 07:37
LONDON (Alliance News) - Tullow Oil PLC Tuesday said it has made a further oil find in northern Kenya during exploration drilling, which may have identified a new fault block in the developing Ngamia field area.
The FTSE 100 oil and gas exploration company said its Ngamia-2 appraisal well found up to 39 metres of net oil pay and 11 metres of net gas pay, appearing to represent a new fault block area, north of its previous Ngamia-1 discovery.
The company said the reservoirs were of high quality, with over 200 metres of net reservoir sands and good permeability.
Tullow Oil said the well has now been suspended for testing, and the drill rig will continue to drill up to four additional appraisal wells in the Ngamia field area, as part of an extended well test programme.
"The success of the Ngamia-2 exploratory appraisal well builds on our major basin opening discovery well, Ngamia-1. The reservoirs were of similar quality and the well will be suspended for testing," Exploration Director Angus McCoss said in a statement.
The company added that its separate SMP-5 drilling rig has completed testing operations on its Kenyan Agete-1 well which has shown a flow rate of 500 barrels of oil per day, and it is now preparing to test its Ewoi-1 discovery.
Tullow Oil said it now has five drill rigs operating in Kenya and Ethiopia, which are continuing to explore the new regions and to evaluate oil finds.
The company has seen major opportunities in the emerging East Africa region and since acquiring interests in Kenya during 2010, it has made the first oil discoveries in the country, discovering over 600 million barrels of oil.
The company also recently announced that, due to positive exploration results in Kenya and Uganda, regional discussions are underway over the development of an East African pipeline to transport oil to Lamu on the Kenyan coast.
"East Africa is becoming a major frontier for hydrocarbon exploration," Chief Executive Aidan Heavey told Alliance News at a press briefing in April, "The presidents of Uganda and Kenya have met over the development, and it is moving ahead."
Tullow Oil shares were up 1.6% to 885.50 pence, making it the second biggest FTSE 100 risers during early trading on Tuesday after BG Group PLC.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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