By KENNEDY KANGETHE, NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 26 – Africa Oil Corporation and two partners have made more oil discoveries at the northern end of South Lokichar Basin. The firm says it has discovered 35 metres and 65 metres of net gas and oil pay in two wells it has been drilling in south Lokichar basin. Among the wells include well 6 and Ngamia-10 which was also drilled in an untested fault compartment. As a result of the new find, the Joint Venture partners have decided to extend the current exploration and appraisal campaign by a further three wells. Africa Oil Corporation has a 25 percent working interest in two blocks with Tullow Oil holding 50 percent interest. Maersk Oil and Gas holds the remaining interest. The firm says the data from these appraisal wells will be incorporated into the ongoing field development planning activities.
“Following the completion of the Ngamia-10 well, the rig was moved to the previously drilled Etom-2 well to prepare the well for a Drill Stem Test. The rig will then drill the fourth well of this campaign, the Emekuya exploration well, which will target the north-eastern flank of the Etom Complex. This well is likely to spud in early May,” the firm says in a statement.
The drilling and operational activities are set to support the Final Investment Decision for the Kenya Full Field Development by the end of 2018. Kenya has already started works for the The Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS). EOPS Agreement between the Kenya Joint Venture and the Government of Kenya was signed on 14 March 2017 allowing all EOPS upstream contracts to be awarded. The first stage of the EOPS will be the evacuation of the stored crude oil, which was produced during extended well testing in 2015, to Mombasa by road. This will be followed production of 2,000 bopd in the fourth quarter of 2017. The EOPS will provide important information which will assist in full field development planning.
“The additional wells will explore further the Greater Etom complex, test an undrilled fault block adjacent to the Ekales field and drill the Ngamia-11 well which will be used for an extended waterflood pilot test in conjunction with the Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS),” said Africa Oil.
Africa Oil Corporation has a 25 percent working interest in Blocks 10BB and 13T with Tullow Oil plc (50 percent and Operator) and Maersk Olie and Gas A/S (25 percent ) holding the remaining interests.
2020 - 2025ish. Mostly our currency will be subject to Crude oil swings if we unpeg from the dollar (USD). The economy will have another area of production and export boost apart from agriculture and tourism (current situation)
1.Independent appraisals of the reserves from the wells they discovered in Q3-4 in 2016. I have always suspected the 1 billion oil barrels reserves as very conservative figures.
2.I will also await independent appraisals of this newly successful wells. If Ngamia 1 discovery was 100 meters net oil yield then its the same with these two wells.
The decision to built a refinery in Isiolo is part of the our oil production masterplan. Crude oil from Turkana is piped on a heated pipeline to Isiolo to be refined. The finished oil products are piped to Nairobi to meet our needs. It can also be sent by another pipeline to Addis Ababa and lastly another pipeline to Lamu port for export. The refinery was proposed to be located in Isiolo as the true midpoint of Kenya. All future oil discovery can be easily piped there for refinery. It’s also easy to distribute the refined oil countrywide from there.
Lastly Tullow still has 4 more well to drill and there success rate in Turkana has been 90%. Let’s await the outcome.
you see with this oil in kenya two things can happen its either kenya will have ten dollar billionaires for the first time or the oil money will be distributed to all citizens and the country will have all basic things accesible to every kenyan. like water, power roads, housing, schools, external debt ipungue but btn the 2, what will come of this oil money your guess is good as mine
The status of our natural gas reserves, if any. I’m very curious about this. Looking forward to a cheaper alternative to LPG and cars running on LNG which is cleaner than, say, diesel.
There was a successful find in Wajir but on appraisal it was found not economically viable. However it meant further exploration is necessary and less risky in being dry. We have to await the appraisal of these two successful wells to ascertain it’s viability as well.
Hope our legislation on oil is solid juu kuna watu watalia kwa choo once we start production. Turkana might be another River State, Nigeria. Lots of these companies exploring make the host country sign iffy deals and most 3rd world countries tend to be on the losing end. Environment, taxation, local labour, transfer of skills, etc.
We should also have a natural resources legislation of a sovereign fund to save for future like Norway etc. Problem is that when politics come into play they will milk those funds dry. The system is terrible.
All that is in the Petroleum Act currently at public participation phase. Remember President Uhuru asking Turkana leaders to lower their demands from 20% to 10% of the oil revenue share.
Kenya is learning from all the failed oil production countries. Our bill creates a Petroleum commission to administer the entire industry. They will publish annually and monthly all oil/gas produced quantities and revenue. The will administer the industry by the Petroleum law and others passed by Parliament. That will include the revenue share agreements, environmental issues, training of local staff, employment of local staff etc. It proposes 5% for the immediate residents within 20km of oil well, 5% county government, 5% sovereign fund and 2.5 % for Nema for future environmental rehabilitation. Of the remaining 82.5%, 32.5% goes to all the other 46 counties. 50% is for national government. That way every person in Kenya stands a chance to benefit from the oil funds. The Petroleum commission is good since it’s published production figures allows everyone to know how much was realized from the oil sales. Please note: the oil funds is minus the cost of oil production where the oil upstream company deducts all cost of oil production.
Lastly on the Petroleum Bill, there is a proposal that the entire oil funds be used exclusively for social economic development and not recurrent or debt payment.