nai guy
June 7th, 2007, 05:07 AM
Data reveals potential for rich oil wells near Lamu
Data reveals potential for rich oil wells near Lamu
Written by Jim Onyango
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r32/guok7/exploration.jpg
05-June-2007: Two international oil and gas exploration firms say they have acquired new data that reveals potential for 1.1 billion barrels of oil near Lamu.
Australia-based Gippsland Offshore Petroleum and its partner, Pancontinental Oil & Gas, say they have completed a geophysical survey of Lamu basin by air and gathered data that will be processed in Melbourne.
The information will be integrated with recently acquired seismic data, and the companies say they hope to commence mapping the drillable sites in August.
Kenya has yet to discover any oil or gas reserves, but the country is riding a boom in exploration interest in east Africa.
Northern neighbour, Sudan, which started exporting oil in 1999, has become the third largest oil producing country in Africa, yielding about 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day out of reserves of 563 million barrels.
Uganda’s reserves are estimated at 250 million barrels with initial production of up to 10,000 barrels a day, expected to begin in 2009.
“The area is poorly explored and understood, but wells in the block indicate prospects of oil and gas,” said Gippsland in a release. “To date, mapping in the block has located four key leads with potential to house an un-risked 1.1 (billion barrels) of oil and 5.5 (trillion cubic feet) of gas.”
In a joint venture with Pancontinental, also based in Australia, the firm has rights to Block L6, which has a mixture of on and off-shore area.
The airborne survey is considered key in linking onshore and offshore geology.
“Kenya, with its high petroleum potential, attractive Government commercial terms, proximity to the growing East African and Indian energy markets, is a high quality component of Gippsland Offshore’s ongoing exploration portfolio” said the firm.
If sustainable drill targets are identified, said Gippsland, the project will move to drill two wells within four years. Gippsland Offshore holds a 60 per cent operating interest in the block rights, with Pancontinental holding the rest.
Gippsland has a wide portfolio of exploration projects, including a large offshore project in Jamaica, as well as operations in France. Before the Kenyan exploration, the company had operations in Madagascar.
L6 is one of 17 blocks that the National Oil Corporation of Kenya has made available to interested foreign firms.
Another Australian exploration firm, Woodside Energy Ltd, announced last year that the results of a well it dug in nearby offshore block L5 had not shown any petroleum deposits.
The Government has extended Woodside’s oil exploration contract by 16 months, to July next year.
In 2004, Woodside withdrew from Afrex, a joint venture with Pancontinental for exploration in L6 as well as L8, another coastal block.
At a recent United Nations oil and gas conference in Kenya, the Government said it would issue more exploration licenses in a bid to thrust Kenya into global oil exploration and to capitalise on booming interest in Africa’s energy.
Six exploration licences have so far been issued by the government, and Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi said large, promising areas onshore and offshore had yet to be investigated.
Players at the recent conference on gas and oil trade spoke highly of east Africa’s potential for petroleum discoveries. Poor quality data collected in the 1960s and 1970s was said to have wrongly painted the region as likely to contain gas but no or little oil.
Experts have said the geology of east Africa is more complex than that of West Africa, where the continent’s biggest reserves have been found so far. Now, however, the latest seismic and geochemical techniques could be harnessed to find deposits.
Data reveals potential for rich oil wells near Lamu
Written by Jim Onyango
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r32/guok7/exploration.jpg
05-June-2007: Two international oil and gas exploration firms say they have acquired new data that reveals potential for 1.1 billion barrels of oil near Lamu.
Australia-based Gippsland Offshore Petroleum and its partner, Pancontinental Oil & Gas, say they have completed a geophysical survey of Lamu basin by air and gathered data that will be processed in Melbourne.
The information will be integrated with recently acquired seismic data, and the companies say they hope to commence mapping the drillable sites in August.
Kenya has yet to discover any oil or gas reserves, but the country is riding a boom in exploration interest in east Africa.
Northern neighbour, Sudan, which started exporting oil in 1999, has become the third largest oil producing country in Africa, yielding about 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day out of reserves of 563 million barrels.
Uganda’s reserves are estimated at 250 million barrels with initial production of up to 10,000 barrels a day, expected to begin in 2009.
“The area is poorly explored and understood, but wells in the block indicate prospects of oil and gas,” said Gippsland in a release. “To date, mapping in the block has located four key leads with potential to house an un-risked 1.1 (billion barrels) of oil and 5.5 (trillion cubic feet) of gas.”
In a joint venture with Pancontinental, also based in Australia, the firm has rights to Block L6, which has a mixture of on and off-shore area.
The airborne survey is considered key in linking onshore and offshore geology.
“Kenya, with its high petroleum potential, attractive Government commercial terms, proximity to the growing East African and Indian energy markets, is a high quality component of Gippsland Offshore’s ongoing exploration portfolio” said the firm.
If sustainable drill targets are identified, said Gippsland, the project will move to drill two wells within four years. Gippsland Offshore holds a 60 per cent operating interest in the block rights, with Pancontinental holding the rest.
Gippsland has a wide portfolio of exploration projects, including a large offshore project in Jamaica, as well as operations in France. Before the Kenyan exploration, the company had operations in Madagascar.
L6 is one of 17 blocks that the National Oil Corporation of Kenya has made available to interested foreign firms.
Another Australian exploration firm, Woodside Energy Ltd, announced last year that the results of a well it dug in nearby offshore block L5 had not shown any petroleum deposits.
The Government has extended Woodside’s oil exploration contract by 16 months, to July next year.
In 2004, Woodside withdrew from Afrex, a joint venture with Pancontinental for exploration in L6 as well as L8, another coastal block.
At a recent United Nations oil and gas conference in Kenya, the Government said it would issue more exploration licenses in a bid to thrust Kenya into global oil exploration and to capitalise on booming interest in Africa’s energy.
Six exploration licences have so far been issued by the government, and Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi said large, promising areas onshore and offshore had yet to be investigated.
Players at the recent conference on gas and oil trade spoke highly of east Africa’s potential for petroleum discoveries. Poor quality data collected in the 1960s and 1970s was said to have wrongly painted the region as likely to contain gas but no or little oil.
Experts have said the geology of east Africa is more complex than that of West Africa, where the continent’s biggest reserves have been found so far. Now, however, the latest seismic and geochemical techniques could be harnessed to find deposits.