Petroleum Africa
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Monday, November 14, 2016
A new drilling program is set for Q2 2017 by someone other than the Tullow Oil / Africa Oil Corp. partnership. Essel Group Middle East (EGME) and Simba Energy plan to spud their first well during the quarter. Plans for drilling follow the 2D seismic survey launched in August of this year on the partners’ Block 2A.
As of late-October nearly 80% of the seismic acquisition was complete,EGME told Petroleum Africa. The company’s CEO,Punkaj Gupta, in an interview with PA said, “Data processing and interpretation has been running in parallel with this work and we expect it to be completed by the end of February 2017.”
Gupta went on to say that targets previously identified through EGME’s FTG and passive seismic surveys were confirmed by preliminary interpretation of the current seismic program. “We expect that we will start drilling at Block 2A in the second quarter of 2017,” Gupta said.
While Tullow and Africa Oil have discovered commercial quantities of reserves on their exploration blocks, previous exploration by various other firms has not yet panned out. When asked if that was a concern for EGME, Gupta replied, “No it doesn’t concern us and we have every confidence in Block 2A. It’s a highly promising prospect that falls within the confines of the Mandera and Anza basins, both of which have proven petroleum systems and we estimate that it contains resources of up to two billion barrels of oil. “
If exploration on Block 2A does pay off the block is extremely well positioned, lying close to two of Kenya’s key transport corridors at Lamu and Mombasa, which Gupta says will enable EGME to minimize transportation costs when it becomes operational.
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