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Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Kenya will see a new drilling program soon when Zarara Oil & Gas starts its long-delayed drilling campaign on Lamu’s Pate Island. Zarara was supposed to start in June of 2017 but due to technical and financial issues the program was postponed.
According to reports from Kenya, the company has all the equipment necessary for drilling onsite. The equipment was initially assembled in Mombasa before being ferried over the island.
The company intends to drill one well, Pate 2, and if successful proceed with a second well, Pate 3, to ascertain if the gas discovery is of commercial quantity.
Addressing the crowd during the spudding (initial drilling) ceremony in Pate and to officially receive the equipment, Zarara’s country manager Peter Nduru said all plans had been finalized and drilling would start any time this week.
He went on to say that the construction of the drilling site was already completed.
“In the past two years, Zarara has been preparing to drill one and possibly two wells here at Pate. We have therefore invited you here today to witness the beginning of the drilling operations of Pate 2 well, which will possibly extend to Pate 3 well,” Nduru told attendees.
With the equipment on site the well will be drilled to a depth of 300 meters, as they wait for a bigger rig that will extend the drilling to 4,500 meters.
“The drilling of Pate 2 well will take about 80 days. If Pate 2 is successful, the rig will proceed to drill Pate 3, directional to the same depth. This phase of the drilling work is scheduled to proceed up to February 2019, by which time the results of the exploration drilling will become clear,” said Nduru.
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