Tullow Oil Spuds Ekales-1 Well in Kenya
Africa Oil Corp. announced the commencement of drilling operations on its Ekales prospect located in Block 13T in the Lokichar Basin in Kenya. The well was spud July 22 and has a planned total depth of 8,202 feet (2,500 meters) and is expected to take approximately 2 months to drill and evaluate. The primary objectives are the Auwerwer and Lower Lokhone sandstones already established to be highly productive reservoirs at the nearby Ngamia and Twiga discoveries. The prospect is a three way fault closure against the main basin bounding fault and is located directly between, and approximately 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) northwest of the Ngamia discovery and 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) south of the Twiga discovery along the “string of pearls” trend. The well is being drilled by the Weatherford #804 rig. The Company holds a 50 percent working interest in this prospect along with operator Tullow Oil Plc.
Africa Oil CEO Keith Hill commented, “The Ekales prospect is probably one of the lowest risk prospects in our inventory. The proximity and similarity to the existing Ngamia and Twiga discoveries give us a high degree of confidence that we will find oil and continue to build the discovered resources necessary for commercial volume threshold. Our pace of exploration and appraisal continues to accelerate with the anticipated arrival of three additional rigs in Kenya and Ethiopia in the next 60 days for a total of 6 rigs, 4 of which will be operated by Tullow Oil." The recently announced Etuko discovery, on the flank of the Lokichar basis has opened a new play fairway and provided further confirmation of the world class potential of the Lokichar Basin.”
In the South Omo block in Ethiopia, mobilization of the OGEC 75 rig to the Tultule location is underway. This prospect is located 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from the Sabisa-1 well which was recently abandoned after proving the existence of the essential hydrocarbon elements of source, seal and reservoir in this frontier basin. It is being drilled on a well-defined horst block feature which should provide good trapping characteristics. The Company holds a 30 percent working interest in this prospect along with operator Tullow Oil Plc (50 percent) and Marathon Oil (20 percent).
The Etuko well in Block 10BB, where an oil discovery was recently announced in shallower reservoirs, has now reached a total depth 10,171 feet (3,100 meters) and log and Modular Formation Dynamics Tester (MDT) evaluation have commenced. The rigs for the Ogaden Basin (Block 7&8) El Kuran-3 prospect in Ethiopia (Africa Oil non-operated working interest: 30 percent) and the Block 9 Bahasi prospect in Kenya (Africa Oil operated working interest: 50 percent) are in country and spud of El Kuran-3 is expected in August and Bahasi-1 in September. One additional lightweight rig has been contracted for testing and drilling operations in the Lokichar Basin and should also be operational in September.
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