Oil discovery made at Kenya's Twiga South-1 well

Twiga South-1 was drilled to a total depth of 3,250 metres and encountered 30 metres of net oil pay in Tertiary sandstone reservoirs. It also revealed a thick sequence of fractured rock section that exhibited oil and wet gas shows over a gross interval of 796 metres.

Tullow holds a 50 per cent operated interest in the Twiga South-1 well, with Africa Oil holding the remaining 50 per cent interest. The discovery marks the second significant oil find for both companies in Kenya following the Ngamia-1 discovery earlier in the year.

Angus McCoss, exploration director at Tullow, said, "Following the basin-opening Ngamia-1 well result earlier this year, I am pleased to announce that our second well in our onshore Kenya rift basins campaign has also discovered oil. This immediate follow on discovery reaffirms the considerable prospectivity of the Lokichar Basin.

"Having significantly expanded our plans in Kenya and Ethiopia, there is much to look forward to as the exploration campaign and testing programme move ahead," he added.

According to Africa Oil, three sandstone reservoir units, analogous to Ngamia-1, were encountered and moveable oil, with an API greater than 30 degrees, was recovered from all three zones.

Africa Oil president and CEO Keith Hill remarked, "This second discovery, immediately following the basin-opening Ngamia-1 well result earlier this year, reaffirms the considerable prospectivity of the Lokichar Basin.

"Of notable interest, is the new fractured play opportunity which has been encountered for the first time in East Africa," he added.

Africa Oil said that a series of flow tests would now be conducted on the well over the course of the next four to eight weeks, with the rig scheduled to move back to flow test the Ngamia-1 well following completion of testing activities at Twiga South-1.

The Ngamia-1 discovery is located 22km to the south of the latest Kenyan oil discovery.