Oil, wet gas seen in second Kenya Lokichar discovery

Tullow Oil PLC and Africa Oil Corp. have made a second large oil discovery in the Lokichar basin in northwestern Kenya.

The companies said the Twiga South-1 exploratory well on Block 13T encountered 30 m of net oil pay in Tertiary sandstone reservoirs with further potential to be assessed on test. The well also encountered a tight fractured rock section with oil and wet gas shows over a 796-m gross interval.

Twiga South-1 has been drilled to a total depth of 3,250 m and successfully logged and sampled. Three sandstone reservoir zones, analogous to those in the companies’ mid-2012 Ngamia-1 discovery on Block 10BB, were encountered and movable oil of higher than 30° gravity was recovered. Further potential exists updip of the well and will be subsequently appraised, Tullow said.

Tullow also sampled movable oil lighter than 30° gravity from the 796-m tight fractured rock section below 2,272 m. This tight fractured rock section is a new play-type for the region that will require further evaluation to understand its extent and any productive potential, the company added.

The Twiga South structure is the second prospect to be tested in the Lokichar basin as part of a multiwell drilling campaign in Kenya and Ethiopia and is the first oil discovery in Block 13T. Twiga South is 22 km north of Ngamia-1 and further derisks a number of other similar features on the basin’s western margin (OGJ Online, July 5, 2012).

A series of flow tests will be run on Twiga South-1 in the next 4-8 weeks, after which the rig will return to flow-test Ngamia-1.

Elsewhere in Tullow’s East African Rift basin acreage, a result from the Paipai-1 well in Block 10A in Kenya is expected by the end of 2012, and the Sabisa-1 well on the South Omo block in Ethiopia is expected to spud by the end of December.

Tullow has a 50% operated interest in Twiga South-1, and Africa Oil has 50%.