CEPSA, ERHC identify drilling location in Kenya’s Block 11A

Spanish exploration company CEPSA and Houston based explorer ERHC have said that its exploration team has identified the Tarach-1 prospect as the drilling location for the first exploration well set to be drilled in March 2016 in an announcement by ERHC.

This decision was based on interpretation of 1,086.6 kilometers of 2D seismic data acquired by CEPSA Kenya Limited (a wholly owned affiliate of Compañía Española de Petróleos, S.A.U.  CEPSA (the operating partner) and ERHC on the Block with the exploration team considering the Tarach prospect as the most robust mapped prospect.

According to the statement the interpretation of the seismic data saw the exploration team identify 13 drillable prospects and leads in the Tarach basin and place the mean prospective resources of all prospects and leads at a total of 645 million barrels.

The seismic data also shows that the basin’s stratigraphy which is believed to be Tertiary/Cretaceous age could be similar to the Lokichar basin 200 km to the southeast of Block 11A, where significant discoveries have been made with over 600 million barrels of 2C contingent resources.

The Tarach-1 prospect which is situated in the central part of the basin has a three-way structural closure trapping against a North – South trending normal fault and has mean estimate of oil prospective resources for the prospect is 65 million barrels.

Already block operator CEPSA and ERHC have commenced preparations for drilling with tendering processes underway on major items.

The two partners say that contingent upon the results of Tarach-1, they might decide to drill a second exploratory well, the Egole-1 a four-way rollover closure onto a Northwest – Southeast trending fault plain with mean prospective resources of 101 million barrels of oil, to follow shortly thereafter.

ERHC currently holds a carried 35 percent interest in Block 11A while CEPSA has a 55 percent interest.