In Kenya, Africa Oil and its partners have revealed plans to drill eight exploration and appraisal wells from December. This is aimed at increasing proven resources and improving financing prospects for field development as well as an export pipeline.

The drilling programme is to begin with two exploration wells, the first will be drilled in early December, after that two appraisal wells will be drilled to advance the evaluations of existing discoveries. Four more exploration wells will be drilled afterwards depending on encouraging results.

Let’s be reminded that the group, which includes Tullow Oil and Maersk, at first planned to construct a single pipeline to connect oil fields in Uganda and the Kenyan project to Kenya's coast, but Uganda had chosen to construct its own pipeline through Tanzania.

Constructing a standalone pipeline for Kenya “makes us much more dependent on our own resources for justifying and financing that pipeline,” inspiring additional drilling to balance oil discoveries, Africa Oil’s Chief Executive, Keith Hill (photo), said adding that the South Lokichar Basin located north of Kenya is currently estimated to have 766 million barrels of recoverable contingent oil resources.

These oil resources are classified as 2C resources, covering proven and probable resources, while 1C covers proven resources, Reuters reports.

“If we could get to a billion barrels of 2C and say 300-350 million of 1C those would give us a pipeline tariff and lending base which would work very well for us,” he said, not disclosing the current estimates for 1C resources.

Hill stated that he is confident that both thresholds for 2C and 1C resources would be achieved if all eight wells were drilled, adding that the partners plans to secure a final investment decision for the project by late 2018, with full production estimated to begin about three years later.

Tullow Oil holds a 50% interest in the Kenyan project, while Africa Oil and Maersk hold 25% and 25% interests respectively in the two blocks where discoveries were made in 2012.

Anita Fatunji