Tullow strikes more oil in Kenya

The British company Tullow Oil has announced that it has discovered further oil reserves at one of its Kenyan wells in the north of the east African country. Although no commercial discoveries have yet been made, the discoveries of resource plays have increased levels of exploration interest.

Tullow stated that in its Ngamia-1 well in Block 10BB (Operated by Tullow and shared 50/50 with Africa Oil), it had discovered at least 100 m of net oil pay over a total interval of 650 m. The oil discovered is a light waxy crude with an API of more than 30 degrees.

Tullow made a previous discovery of 20 m of net oil pay in March. The well has currently been drilled to a depth of 1515 m and is expected to reach its total depth of 2700 m within the following 4 – 5 weeks. Tullow’s director of exploration, Angus McCoss, said, “This ongoing wildcat is an excellent start to our exploration campaign. The net pay encountered so far in Ngamia-1 is more than double that encountered in any of our East African exploration wells to date. We now look forward to the drilling and evaluation of the deeper potential of this well and the acceleration of our seismic and drilling campaigns in the region.”

As well as completing the drilling of the Ngamia-1 well, Tullow has plans to drill another wildcat: the Twiga-1 well in the neighbouring 13T exploration block. In a statement, the company said, “Many leads and prospects similar to Ngamia have been identified and following this discovery the outlook for further success has significantly improved.”

The news of Tullow’s discovery caused Africa Oil’s share value to rise by 27% to CAD$ 7.38 - Tullow’s shares were not traded because of the UK Bank Holiday.

Edited from various sources by David Bizley

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/08052012/tullow_hits_more_oil_in_northern_kenya/