Tullow confirms 30m of net oil pay at second Kenya well

British exploration company Tullow Oil has confirmed the discovery of 30 metres of net oil pay in Twiga South-1 well, the second such find in the past seven months.

Tullow revealed it has drilled to a depth of 3,250 metres and encountered three reservoir zones with moveable oil.

The firm has also discovered a thick section of hydrocarbons running over a depth of 796 metres, a section which the firm describes as a “new play-type for the region that will require further evaluation to understand its extent and any productive potential.”

“Following the basin-opening Ngamia-1 well result earlier this year, I am pleased to announce that our second well in our onshore Kenya rift basins campaign has also discovered oil,” said Angus McCoss, the Tullow exploration director.

“This immediate follow on discovery reaffirms the considerable prospect of the Lokichar Basin. Having significantly expanded our plans in Kenya and Ethiopia, there is much to look forward to as the exploration campaign and testing programme move ahead.”

A series of flow tests will now be conducted on the well over the next four to eight weeks after which the rig is expected to move back to do tests on the Ngamia-1 well, where oil was first discovered early this year.

The Twiga South-1 well, which Tullow co-owns with Africa Oil at 50 per cent working interests each, is the second prospect to be tested as part of a multi-well drilling campaign in Kenya and Ethiopia.

It is located in Lokichar sub-basin onshore Block 13T in North Western Kenya and 22 kilometres to the north of Ngamia-1 well.

This Twiga South-1 find, first exclusively reported by Business Daily in October, now moves the country closer to having commercially exploitable reserves.

“This is encouraging progress towards commercial oil confirmation, especially if Twiga-1 ends up being as prolific as Ngamia-1,” said Mr George Wachira, an industry consultant, when reports of the find were first announced a month ago.

Tullow Oil was expected to announce the fresh discovery before the end of October, but was delayed by a mechanical fault on the drilling rig, according to its partner, Africa Oil.

The latest discovery is the first in block 13T following the Ngamia-1 discovery early this year in Block 10BB.

Tullow struck substantial deposits of between 104 metres and 143 metres of net pay at Ngamia-1 at a total depth of 2,340 meters, the largest ever discovery in a single well by Tullow oil in Africa.

Tullow has operations on five blocks including 10A, 10BA, 10BB, 13T, 12A and 12B and is also a non-operated partner in off-shore block L8 where American oil exploration company Apache Corporation is the operator.