Erin Energy to relinquish Kenya’s offshore Blocks L27, L28

American explorer Erin Energy has said it will not seek an additional extension of its offshore L-27 and L-28 blocks due to the high costs and risks associated with frontier exploration in the current price and market environments.

According to Erin Energy the decision to relinquish the two offshore blocks was in the company’s long-term best interest.

The company which is currently on an eighteen-month extension of the Initial Exploration Period (IEP) had earlier in February said it was running out of time on its quest to find a farm-in partner. Further the company had warned it was unlikely to meet its requirements unless a farm-in partner came on board.

The extension was also aimed at enabling the company evaluate these blocks, allow it to acquire 3D seismic data. The required work then it said would includes the acquisition, processing, and interpretation of 3D seismic data on both blocks.

The Company adds it continues to evaluate the prospectivity of identified leads on its onshore blocks (Blocks L1B and L16) and is currently designing an additional, targeted 2-D seismic acquisition on the blocks.

“Erin Energy has stated that the most prospective of its Kenya assets are its onshore blocks and has focused the majority of its work on these blocks,” Erin Energy said in a statement.

Before the announced relinquishment the company held 4 licenses and the single largest acreage by any single explorer in the Lamu Basin for a combined acreage of 36,913 km2 all awarded in May 2012.