Canada’s Taipan Resources begins drilling for oil in Wajir

Canadian oil explorer Taipan Resources has begun drilling its first well in Wajir County nearly seven years after it secured a licence.

London-based Tower Resources which shares interest in the Wajir-based block said Taipan, through its local subsidiary Lion Petroleum started drilling the Badada-1 well located in Block 2B at 5:00p.m on Wednesday.

Taipan has a 30 per cent interest in the block, Tower Resources (15 per cent) and with Premier Oil of the UK having majority share with 55 per cent.

Drilling is expected to go on for the next 70 days. Tower Resources said if the findings are good, they will pave the way for drilling more wells on the block.

“The spudding of the Badada-1 well marks an important milestone in this frontier exploration basin. Badada-1 is a potential play opener, which if successful, will de-risk other prospects and leads in Block-2B and generate considerable upside from a follow-on exploration programme in 2016/17,” Tower Resources chief executive Graeme Thomson said in a statement.

A presentation by Taipan shows the Badada area has an estimated 251 million barrels of oil.

Tower Resources adds that the Badada area is similar to the Lokichar basin where Tullow Oil has had a string of success with its drilling programme.

Taipan had earlier said it plans to use between $20 million (Sh1.81 billion) and $25 million (Sh2.26 billion) to drill the Badada well and had contracted Greatwall Drilling Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, to do the work. 

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Local firms servicing the company are expected to be some of the biggest beneficiaries from the drilling programme.

“As part of the Lion’s focus on local content, a number of Kenyan companies have been contracted to provide well-site services including logistics, road repairs and the drilling of water wells and other services,” said Taipan in an earlier statement.

A court injunction had earlier threatened to derail Taipan’s drilling programme.

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Pastoralists from the Ajuran community got a court order in mid-November 2014 stopping Taipan from drilling in the Badada area on grounds that exploration work would interfere with their livelihoods.

The High Court lifted the injunction a month later and said the case would be heard again on March 15 this year. Taipan said it expects to have concluded drilling by then.