Kenya’s sunbird-1 offshore well discovery misses commercial threshold

The sunbird-1 well in Kenya’s offshore block L10A that which showed oil and gas samples did not register enough reserves to constitute a commercial discovery according to PTTEP one of the companies with interest on the block.

According to the company’s latest operating results PTTEP expects to write off this well in the third quarter of 2014.

According to Pancontinental that confirmed oil deposits in the well the gross oil column in the well was assessed to be 14m thick beneath a gross gas column of 29.6m in a reefal limestone reservoir in the Sunbird Miocene Pinnacle Reef in area L10A.

The confirmation was after months of analysis that verified the sunbird-1 well as the first ever oil discovery off the East African coast.

Despite the disappointment PTTEP says the findings will be valuable for future geological studies especially offshore where a number of companies are planning to sink more wells motivated by the sunbird prospect.

Recently Pancontinental oil and gas announced it is considering drilling a second well in the Kenyan block L10A where BG Group is the operator.

The Sunbird-1 prospect was an important finding as its results were the first proof of the presence a prospective oil system in the Lamu Basin offshore Kenya.

“The oil and gas have been geochemically typed in detail and the prospective source rocks have been dated and characterized for use in future exploration,” Pancontinental said in a statement while confirming the oil discovery in June.

Block L10A has 3 joint venture partners including BG Group which is the operator with 50 percent interest, PTTEP with 31.25 percent and Pancontinental oil and gas with 18.75 percent.