Oil exploration in Turkana. A Canadian oil firm has raised oil estimates in Mandera to 1.6 billion barrels of crude. FILE
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Taipan said that groundwork done on Block 2B located in the Mandera Basin shows that there could be more than three times what was initially thought.
The company said the upward review is based on data from an independent assessment by Sproule International Limited, a firm it contracted.
Taipan Resources, a Canadian oil and gas company with prospecting rights in northern Kenya, has estimated that the Mandera exploration basin could have as much as 1.6 billion barrels of crude deposits.
In a filing made last week to the TSX Venture Exchange, Taipan said that groundwork done on Block 2B located in the Mandera Basin shows that there could be more than three times what was initially thought.
Taipan said the upward review is based on data from an independent assessment by Sproule International Limited, a firm it contracted.
“The total estimated mean gross unrisked prospective resources on Block 2B in the report has increased by 388 percent to 1,593 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) from 410.4 mmboe,” said Taipan’s statement.
The revised estimate theoretically raises to 2.6 billion barrels the oil deposits in northern Kenya; when added to British firm Tullow Oil’s estimate of one billion barrels of crude in the Tertiary Rift basin.
Kenya has four basins; Mandera, Anza, Tertiary Rift and Lamu basins, but success has been mostly been in the in the Tertiary Rift.
Petroleum analysts said estimates from seismic data only tells how much oil could be underground, but only drilling gives more accurate appraisals.
“The bottom line is that you have to drill a well,” Oil & Energy chief executive Mwendia Nyagah said in an interview.
Taipan said that drilling of the first well, Pearl-1, is expected to take place in the third quarter of this year. UK-based Tullow Oil has had a string of successful of finds in the Tertiary Rift basin but finds in the Anza basin have proved to be elusive.
Tullow found the Anza Basin to be unlucky after initial drilling and it has since then shelved plans for further work. Tullow drilled the 4,255 metre-deep Paipai-1 exploration well in March last year which showed poor findings.
Paipai-1 exploratory well is located on Block 10A in Marsabit County
The firm said that it was unable to recover oil to the surface and suspended work on Paipail-1 well located in Block 10 in Anza Basin, Marsabit County.
Tullow’s 2013 annual report says the losses incurred from surrendering the block amounted to Sh6.8 billion.
