Global oil firm says Kenya's well releases 281 bopd

Global oil exploration firm, Tullow Oil said Monday one of Kenya's six oil wells has been releasing 281 barrels of oil a day (bopd) following a drill test it conducted recently.The oil company said the drill test which had been completed at Ngamia-1 well in Block 10BB proved the commercial potential of oil reserves in the northern part of the country."The results from the first flow test at Ngamia are also very encouraging and prove the first potentially commercial flow from the Lower Lokhone reservoir section. The remaining tests in the Auwerwer reservoir units will give us a fuller indication of Ngamia's production potential," Angus McCoss, Tullow Oil's Exploration Director said in a statement issued in Nairobi.McCoss said the test was carried out in the Lower Lokhone formation and the well flowed 281 barrels of 30 degree API oil per day using a Progressive Cavity Pump.He said the remaining five tests will be conducted in the Auwerwer (formerly Upper Lokhone) sandstones which are the highest quality reservoirs penetrated in the Ngamia well and which produced very well in the recent tests at the Twiga South-1 well.The British oil firm said results of these remaining Ngamia tests are expected to be announced by early June.The energy ministry officials have remained optimistic about possible oil finds following the ongoing exploration by Tullow, which is also engaged in activities around the Mandera region.Exploration experts say the semi-arid regions of northern and north-eastern Kenya, have the curvy rocks, formed millions of years back, when the region was an ocean.The Ngamia-1 well is located in Block 10BB in Kenya and the Africa Oil has a 50 percent working interest in the block along with Tullow which holds the remaining 50 percent interest and operatorship."The mobilization of the drilling rig from Paipai in Block 10A to the Etuko (previously Kamba) location in Block 10BB in Kenya continues on schedule with drilling expected to commence in the first half of May," the statement said.Kenya and the entire East African region, has witnessed intensified exploratory activity since 2003, which led to the discoveries of oil and gas in Uganda and Tanzania. There is also ongoing exploration in Ethiopia.Africa Oil said it is in final negotiations to secure a drilling rig for its upcoming Bahasi-1 exploration well in Block 9 in Kenya, a well it said will test a large anticlinal feature in the Cretaceous rift trend which has recently been confirmed to contain hydrocarbons at the Paipai well in Block 10A."The company said the well is expected to spud in the third quarter of this year where it holds a 50 percent working interest and operatorship along with partner Marathon Oil Corporation (50 percent)," it said."We are pleased to be moving forward on a number of high impact projects that will greatly affect the value of the company in the coming year," Africa Oil CEO Keith Hill said.He added that the confirmation of potentially commercially viable oil in the Lower Lokhone sands in the Ngamia well will add to the overall resource potential, but also has positive implications for the upcoming Etuko-1 well on the eastern flank of the Lokichar Basin."We remain convinced that we have only just begun to unlock the potential of what may be one of the largest new oil basins to be opened in recent times."Kenya has a huge mineral potential but its exploration efforts have only picked in the last 5 years with the awarding of commercial licences in prospecting for oil, gold, coal, geothermal and rare earths.The East African nation is also expected to tender for the for the exploration of natural gas in Kilifi, near the coastal city of Mombasa, according to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy Patrick Nyoike.East Africa is now regarded as a promising frontier especially following discoveries made by Heritage and Hardman Resources (now Tullow Oil).Analysts say countries in East Africa and on the seaboard from Ethiopia on down to Mozambique have all begun to benefit from the success of Uganda as it made it easier fro smaller companies to raise funding for exploration in the region