Tower Resources gives Kenya drilling update

London-listed, Africa-focussed oil and gas exploration company, Tower Resources plc has announced an update on its drilling activity in Kenya.

Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Tower Resources (Kenya) Limited, Tower holds a 15% interest in Block 2B, in the Anza Basin, onshore Kenya. Tower acquired the interest in Block 2B via a farm-out transaction completed in June 2014 with Lion Petroleum Corporation, the operator and a wholly owned subsidiary of Taipan Resources Inc., and who hold a 30% interest. The remainder of the licence is held by Premier Oil (55%).

Badada-1 well

On 8 October, Taipan signed of a Letter of Intent with the Greatwall Drilling Company of China to contract the GW-190 land rig for the planned Badada-1 well onshore Block-2B, Kenya. The Badada-1 well is expected to spud between mid-December 2014 and mid-January 2015 and is expected to take approximately 70 days to drill.

The Badada-1 well is a potential play-opener. It will test the first of several prospects and leads in Block-2B that are potentially analogous to prospects in the Lokichar Basin where Tullow Oil and Africa Oil have enjoyed multiple oil discoveries in the Tertiary Rift sequence. The well is planned to be drilled to a total depth of between 3000 and 4500 m to test primary Tertiary age reservoirs and, dependent upon results, secondary upper Cretaceous age reservoirs.

Follow-on prospects

Tower’s management estimate gross unrisked prospective resources for this well range from 402 million boe (P10) to 16 million boe (P90) with a Pmean of 169 million boe. This compares to Taipan’s estimate of gross mean unrisked prospective resources of 251 million boe (Source: Sproule International Limited February 2014). Tower’s management believes this difference reflects a more conservative approach to the extent of the Badada structure, but also recognise there is considerable upside potential in Block-2B, both in terms of additional zones within the Badada prospect and the possible extent of the trap as well as in the multiple follow-on prospects and leads in the block.

If the Badada-1 well is successful it will de-risk many other prospects and leads within Block-2B and provide important information about the detailed geological evolution of the Anza Basin to aid future exploration. The follow-on exploration potential of just the four prospects and leads immediately adjacent to the Badada prospect is estimated to be an additional 405 million boe of gross mean unrisked prospective resources by Taipan, with a range from 890 million boe (P10) to 104 million boe (P90) as verified by Sproule. A total of nineteen prospects and leads have been identified in the block so far with total estimated gross mean unrisked prospective resources of 1593 million boe reported by Sproule. Tower is currently updating its own view on the potential upside in the Block and will provide further guidance once this work is complete.

Preparations at the well site are already underway with a number of auxiliary services and long-lead items already contracted. Gross well costs remain estimated at US$ 20 to US$ 25 million (US$ 3.0 to US$ 3.75 million net to Tower). The company will provide a further update upon the formal contracting of the GW-190 rig and mobilisation to the Badada-1 drill site and other operational progress in due course.

Additional seismic in 2015

Graeme Thomson, CEO, commented “We are very excited by the upside potential in Block-2B and whilst this is a frontier well, if it succeeds then there is scope for repeating the success several times over. There are already a large number of leads mapped and additional seismic in 2015 could delineate these so that an aggressive exploration programme can follow in 2016/17.”

Adapted from press release by Cecilia Rehn

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/exploration/10102014/tower-resources-gives-kenya-drilling-update/