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Message: AFRICA OIL ........ UPDATE ... > AOI
AFRICA OIL ....Update AOI
Good morning!
Please find enclosed a news release issued this morning. If you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to call.
Best regards,
Sophia Shane
Ph. 604 689 7842
AFRICA OIL ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL PAY AT ETUKO-1 AND AN UPDATE ON DEVELOPMENT PLANS
July 31, 2013 (AOI–TSXV, AOI–NASDAQ OMX) … Africa Oil Corp. (“Africa Oil” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the Company’s major exploration success in Kenya continues with the Etuko-1 discovery on Block 10BB. The Etuko-1 has been deepened to penetrate Miocene-age sandstones of the Lower Lokhone formation and has encountered approximately 50 metres of potential net pay. This is in addition to the over 40 metres of net pay confirmed in the shallower Auwerwer and Upper Lokhone reservoirs previously announced.
Partner and Operator, Tullow Oil plc, reported today that following the success at Etuko-1, the Basin volumes are now expected to exceed the threshold for development studies to commence.
In May 2013, drilling commenced on the Etuko prospect, 14 km east of Twiga South-1. This is the first test of the Basin Flank Play in the eastern part of the Basin and results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluid confirm a new oil discovery with net pay of over 40 metres in the Auwerwer and Upper Lokhone targets. The well was then deepened into the Lower Lokhone sands and encountered approximately 50 metres of additional potential net pay that will be included in a program of flow testing later this year to determine their production potential. Although the Lower Lokhone sands are lower quality than the main objectives in the Auwerwer and Upper Lokhone formations, the partners successfully flowed oil from this interval in the Ngamia-1 well. Once operations at Etuko-1 are complete, the rig will move to the Agete prospect located 6 km north of the Twiga South discovery.
Ekales-1, the next exploration well in the Basin Bounding Fault Play and located between the Ngamia and Twiga-South discoveries, commenced drilling on 22 July 2013 and will target similar objectives. A 550 sq km 3D survey over the area, which will support an appraisal program, is also scheduled to commence in the third quarter of 2013.
Africa Oil’s acreage includes several Tertiary-aged rift basins that have similar characteristics to the Lake Albert Rift Basin in Uganda. Over 90 leads and prospects have so far been identified across this acreage in Kenya following the acquisition of 55,000 sq km of FTG and more than 6,500 km of 2D seismic. Exploration drilling and testing activity in the region commenced in January 2012 with the drilling of the Ngamia-1 well followed by the Twiga South-1 well. Exploration and appraisal activities to date have significantly de-risked the remaining prospectivity in the Basin and underpin the belief that it and other basins within Africa Oil’s acreage could have similar potential to the Lake Albert Rift Basin in Uganda.
The excellent results to date onshore Kenya are an important step towards understanding the overall Basin potential and its commerciality. Resources discovered to date are of a scale that the Partnership will initiate discussions with the Government of Kenya and other relevant stakeholders to consider development options. These discussions include consideration of a ”start-up phase” oil production system with potential to deliver significant production rates with oil export via road or rail in advance of a full-scale pipeline development. To facilitate these development activities in parallel with exploration and appraisal, an “Area of Interest” (AOI), encompassing the Basin discoveries and further prospects in Blocks 13T and 10BB, was agreed with the Government of Kenya in February 2013. This agreement allows a multiple field approach to development of the resources while permitting the continued focus on exploration to increase the resource base while concurrently appraising discoveries.
Africa Oil Corp. is a Canadian oil and gas company with assets in Kenya and Ethiopia as well as Puntland (Somalia) through its 45% equity interest in Horn Petroleum Corporation. Africa Oil's East African holdings are in within a world-class exploration play fairway with a total gross land package in this prolific region in excess of 250,000 square kilometers. The East African Rift Basin system is one of the last of the great rift basins to be explored. Three new significant discoveries have been announced in the Lokichar basin in which the Company holds a 50% interest along with operator Tullow Oil plc. The Company is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and on First North at NASDAQ OMX-Stockholm under the symbol "AOI".
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Keith C. Hill”
President and CEO2013 03:40 pm
Tullow hits more potential pay in Kenya
mount Kenya.jpg
Kitetraveller.com
31 July 2013 08:01 GMT
Tullow Oil looks set to begin field development studies in Kenya after a deepened discovery well yielded significantly more potential pay.
The London-listed independent drilled the Etuko-1 well on Block 10BB further into the Miocene age sandstones of the Lower Lokhone formation, unearthing 50 metres of potential net oil pay.
This is in addition to the 40-plus metres of net oil pay found in the shallower Auwerwer and Upper Lokhone reservoirs after spudding in May.
Junior partner in the block*** Africa Oil said:
“Following the success at Etuko-1, the basin volumes are now expected to exceed the threshold for development studies to commence.”
The latest potential discovery is of lower quality than in the upper reservoirs but the block partners have already flowed oil from this interval in the Ngamia-1 well.
Once operations at Etuko-1 are complete, the rig will move on to the Agete prospect north of Twiga-South.
Tullow is adding a third rig to its exploration and appraisal programme onshore Kenya by the end of the third quarter.
“A dedicated well testing unit has been contracted and will arrive in country in the fourth quarter of 2013,” Tullow said.
UPDATE 2-Kenya-Uganda could pipe 0.5 mln barrels of oil per day - Tullow
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Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:54am BST * Etuko-1 makes Kenya Lokichar Basin commercially viable * Kenya resource volume estimate raised to 300 mln barrels By Andrew Callus LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - Tullow Oil said a new drilling success at the Etuko-1 well in Kenya confirms the commercial value of fields there and predicted a pipeline picking up Ugandan crude too could deliver 500,000 barrels a day of new output. That amount - probably delivered to the east-coast port of Lamu near the border with Somalia - would boost sub-Saharan African output by 8 percent, from around 6.2 million barrels now. It is equivalent to all the lost production from troubled top exporter Nigeria over the past three years. Tullow has said in the past it hopes to see a 250,000-barrels-a-day pipeline from Uganda's Lake Albert region, where the company is also drilling, with a view to first deliveries by 2018. It has also raised the possibility of a tie-in to its Kenyan prospects. In June, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta agreed to cooperate on a pipeline route that could also eventually ship oil from South Sudan. The Etuko-1 result, added to two other wells, raises Tullow's estimate of resource volumes in the Lokichar basin in Kenya's northwest to 300 million barrels from 250 million. A Kenya-Uganda pipeline with a total length of 1,300 to 1,400 km (800-870 miles) could be a reality "at a similar date (2018)", said Paul McDade, the company's chief operating officer. "When you start to take into account the potential of Kenya, and Lokichar is just the first component of what Kenya could be, it could be much more material than 250,000 barrels a day. It could easily be 500,000 barrels a day or even beyond depending on the exploration success we continue to have in Kenya." Kenya could also envisage exporting oil as early as 2016 by rail and road, McDade said. "We are highlighting the ability to get focused on development early... (but)... It's early days. We are only initiating discussions with the Kenyan government" on how to develop its reserves, he said. "We have 90-plus exploration prospects yet to drill in Kenya so there's a long way to go before we'd understand the full value of this acreage." Tullow is principally an explorer that seeks to bring in investors with deeper pockets for the development stage of its projects. Its partner in Etuko-1 is Africa Oil. RESULTS AND GHANA Tullow's upbeat assessment on Kenyan prospects came as it reported first-half 2013 net profit that fell to $313 million from $567 million, in line with expectations, and as cash flow and revenue reached record levels. A payment by new partners for a share in its Ugandan operations boosted earnings a year earlier, and this was only partly offset by lower exploration writedowns in the 2013 half, Tullow said. Tullow also confirmed on Wednesday that it will seek a "development carry" from any future partner in its Ten project in Ghana, under which the new investor would pay development costs. Tullow put the increased cost of developing Ten at $4.9 billion, excluding lease costs for floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels. Tullow shares were the strongest performer in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index of European oil stocks on Wednesday, climbing
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