Africa Oil, Tullow appraisal activities strike more oil in Northern Kenya

Africa Oil and its Partner Tullow oil have hit some 62 meters of vertical net oil pay in a well drilled towards the north of Twiga 1 and is currently deepening it to evaluate the Lakhone sand reservoirs as a testing program is planned later in the year.

“Some 62 meters of vertical net oil pay has been discovered in the Auwerwer formation, similar in quality to the initial Twiga-1 discovery,” the company announced on its latest update.

This rig will then move to drill a down-dip appraisal of the Amosing discovery, which appears to have high quality reservoir and may be one of the largest discoveries in the basin to date.

The company has earlier sidetracked a well at Twiga 2 which encountered some 18 meters of net oil pay within alluvial fan facies, before being marked as a limited reservoir quality. The Sakson PR5 rig is continuing drilling operations on the Twiga-2 up-dip appraisal well

Another miss for the company is the Ekunyuk -1  well that reached a final total depth of 1802m encountering 5 metres of oil pay within approximately 150 meters of reservoir quality water-bearing sandstone and an equal thickness of a basin-wide rich oil shale.

Following the unsuccessful well at Ekunyuk -1 is located on the eastern flank play, on trend with recent discoveries at Etuko and Ewoi the company has moved this rig to the Agete-2 location..

The PR Marriott 46 rig is currently drilling ahead on the Ngamia-2 appraisal well which is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter before drilling the Ngamia-3 appraisal well.

Results from testing operations currently ongoing on the Agete-1 well using the SMP-5 rig are expected to be completed by the end of May. The plan is for this rig to continue testing operations on discovery and appraisal wells in the discovered basin in Northern Kenya.

Africa oil says it plans to drill prospects in three additional new basins this year two in the North and South Kerio basins (Block 10BB) while the last will be drilled in the West Turkana basin in Block 10BA. In both of these basins, as in the discovered basin in Northern Kenya, the Company holds a 50% working interest along with Operator Tullow Oil plc (50%).

According to the company the Dyepa-1 well will spud in the second quarter and will target the South Kerio basin which is proximal and geologically similar to the discovered basin in Northern Kenya in Block 10BB with this well designed to test a basin bounding fault prospect on the western flank of the basin similar to the string of pearls field discoveries such as the initial Ngamia discovery.

The Dyepa well will also offer data on whether the company can proceed with drilling in other additional propects that have been identified.

Once this rig has completed works in South Kerio it will then move to test the Aze prospect which is located in the North Kerio basin and is comprised of a large, four-way dip closed anticline on the southern shore of Lake Turkana.