Taipan Resources awards drilling contracts for Badada-1 well in Kenya’s Block 2B

Block operator in Block 2B Taipan Resources has announced that together with other joint-venture partners, have executed a contract with Greatwall for the GW-190 land rig and have also contracted Aberdeen-based Norwell Engineering to manage the drilling operations of the Badada-1 well.

The GW-190 land rig recently completed the drilling of the Sala-1 discovery in Block-9 of Anza Basin, Kenya, adjacent to Block-2B.

Following the execution of the contracts Taipan has advised that drilling is expected to commence in early January 2015 with the well is expected to take approx. 70 days to drill and gross well costs are estimated at US$20 to US$25 million of which US$3.0 to US$3.75 million net will be funded by Tower Resources.

“Well-site preparations are gathering momentum for the drilling of the Badada-1 well during this exciting time for Tower’s shareholders which will see the Company drill its first frontier exploration well in Kenya in early January 2015. Success with Badada-1 would de-risk our subsurface thesis of the Anza Basin and result in material potential upside in Block-2B with further exploration drilling in 2016/17,” says Tower Resources CEO Graeme Thomson.

The Badada-1 well is designed to test the Tertiary age reservoirs with the total depth of the well planned between 3,000 to 4,000 metres examining the test analogous geology to the Lokichar Basin where Tullow Oil and Africa Oil continue to unlock the potential of the Tertiary Rift sequence.

The announcement by Taipan also says that the operator has awarded content a number of Kenyan companies contracts to provide well-site services including logistics, road repairs and the drilling of water wells and other services.

Taipan’s estimate of gross mean unrisked prospective resources for Badada-1 is 251mmboe (Source: Sproule International February 2014) half of that by Tower which estimates the gross unrisked prospective resources ranging from 402mmboe (P10) to 16mmboe (P90) with a Pmean of 169mmboe.

Taipan hasd earlier experienced hurdles in the drilling of Badada-1 after the local community sought an court injunction on the grounds that the continuation of the exploration activities in the area would lead to loss of grazing land as well as environmental degradation.

The High Court of Kenya on 10 December 2014 amended the injunction served on 17 November 2014 which had allowed work to continue at the Badada-1 well-site. A further hearing is scheduled after the projected completion of the well, but will not affect our drilling timetable.

Taipan Resources has 30% working interests while Premier Oil has 55% and Tower Resources 15%.