CANADIAN PLAYER AFRICA Oil has secured operatorship of Kenya’s Block 9 and has entered into the first additional exploration phase under the block’s production sharing contract, together with co-venturer Lion Energy.p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">CANADIAN PLAYER AFRICA Oil has secured operatorship of Kenya’s Block 9 and has entered into the first additional exploration phase under the block’s production sharing contract, together with co-venturer Lion Energy.
Following the withdrawal of its two joint-venture partners, Africa Oil will now hold a 66.7 per cent working interest in the PSC, having been approved by the government as operator of the block. Lion will hold the remaining 33.3 per cent.
The partners have a commitment to drill one well, with a minimum depth of 1500 metres, under the first additional exploration phase, which started on 31 December 2010 and will expire on 31 December 2013.
During the previous exploration period, the joint venture partners drilled one well to a depth of 5085 metres and discovered a potentially large gas accumulation.
Gas shows and petrophysical analysis of wireline logs indicated multiple gas pay zones totalling about 91 metres in Lower Cretaceous sandstones.
Testing is currently being carried out in conjunction with studies on commercialisation of this gas, including possible gas-to-power or small-scale liquefied natural gas projects.
"We are very pleased to assume majority interest and operatorship of this large and highly prospective block in the Anza rift trend. With the possible existing gas discovery and the upside of a highly prospective oil play, we see this block complementing our existing East African rift basin exploration portfolio,” said Africa Oil chief executive Keith Hill.
The north-western portion of the block also contains the Kaisut basin, which is an extension of the Anza basin oil play currently being pursued by Africa Oil and its joint-venture partners in Block 10A.
Several large leads have been identified in this area on existing 2D seismic data and a 500-to-700 km.
