A fourth Tullow-Africa Oil joint venture rig has been secured and is expected to commence testing and drilling operations on Blocks 10BB and 13T in October this year.
The Company, as operator, and its partner in Block 9 have also secured a fifth rig, which will commence drilling operations in September 2013.
The Company plans to have drilled ten exploration wells and to have tested four wells across its exploration blocks during 2013.
The company completed successful well tests in the half start of this year where they confirmed over 5,000 barrels of oil flow per day (“bopd”) potential per well.
Ekales-1, the next exploration well in the Basin Bounding Fault Play and on trend with Ngamia-1 and Twiga South-1, commenced drilling in July.
The Canadian firm indicates that it is significantly increasing the pace of exploration. “For a period during the last half of the year, the Company will have six drilling rigs operating and expects to exit the year with five rigs operating”, indicates Africa Oil.
The company and its operating partner in Block 9 in Kenya are currently mobilizing Greatwall GW190 rig to drill the Bahasi-1 exploratory well. This well which is planned to spud in September will be drilled on a large anticlinal structure targeting tertiary and cretaceous sandstones where six billion barrels of oil was discovered along trend in Sudan in a similar geologic setting. A follow-up well is also being considered in early 2014 in Block 9.
