EOPS: 30,000 Barrels of Crude Oil Stored in Mombasa

Already 30,000 barrels of crude oil have been stored at the Mombasa based refinery since the trucking of stored oil at the Ngamia fields in mid this years.

Currently the Kenya joint venture partners report they are trucking 600 barrels a day through four trucks every two days far below the targeted 2000 barrels envisaged under the Early Oil Pilot Scheme with volume of oil transported by truck is expected to increase to 2,000 bopd once the Early Oil Production System is fully operational and production testing commences from the Amosing production facility.

To date there are two wells currently in production including the Ngamia-8 well and the Ngamia-3 well which successfully started production in June 2018. At the Ngamia 11 well water injection testing is ongoing and oil produced from testing being stored in the field. A comprehensive review of results from this program commenced in the third quarter of 2018 with JV partner Africa Oil terming them as positive.

As of May 2018 an estimated 75000 barrels of crude oil was in storage in the Ngamia and Amosing fields  38,450 barrels from the Ngamia field and approximately 35830 barrels from the Amosing field.

The first lifting of sweet Kenyan crude oil stored in Mombasa is expected in the second quarter of 2019.

Elsewhere in field development Africa Oil reports that the upstream and pipeline Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) work associated with the South Lokichar development project is progressing to plan and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019.

Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA) are also on schedule for submission to the regulators in the second quarter of 2019.

Further the Kenya Joint Venture Partners (Blocks 10BB and 13T) says negotiations are ongoing on the key commercial Heads of Terms (HOT’s) with the Government of Kenya, related to agreements expected to establish the commercial structure associated with field development.

Africa Oil also reports that costs associated with appraisal activities and developments studies related to the South Lokichar basin cost the explorer of $8.9 million during Q3 2018  accumulating to $30.2 million year to date in 2018.