National Oil Corporation Calls For Tenders For 3D seismic Offshore Kenya

The National Oil Corporation of Kenya has invited for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from eligible companies to acquire a multi-client 3D broadband seismic survey including processing over the shallow waters of the offshore Lamu basin , Kenya.

According to NOC the multi-client surveys and studies are part of the preparation of an open licensing round tentatively scheduled for the year 2017 with a formal announcement on the date to be made by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.

NOC also hopes to ride on the current low price environment whereby exploration spending by many companies has been significantly reduced and the market for the utilization survey vessels is in a slump.

“This creates an ideal opportunity to spend the next one-half years putting together a series of multi-client survey and studies that will help de-risk the open acreage, particularly in the offshore area to enhance its attractiveness by lowering initial capital required to de-risk the area, while accelerating exploration programmes that could lead to development and production,” NOC MD Summaya Athman says.

NOC adds that the intention of National Oil and the Ministry is to increase the amount of 3D data coverage so as to better image drillable structures and accelerate exploration through drilling in the earliest phases of exploration, potentially the Initial Exploration Period of any Block licensed under the new PSC.

This the corporation says will de-risk the open acreage, particularly in the offshore area to enhance its attractiveness by lowering initial capital required to de-risk the area, while accelerating exploration programmes that could lead to development and production.

The area of planned survey is shown on the map below and the successful contractor will be granted access to the existing data and its distribution to assist in designing and costing the survey.

The 3D acquisition and processing may include the deep water blocks held by ANADARKO (L12 & L11A) and CAMAC (L27 & L28) and possibly L25 and L26 depending on prior commitments being made by the licensees’