Dutch firm to survey coast for oil deposits

British oil and gas BG-Group has contracted Dutch company Fugro to conduct an offshore survey on its two oil blocks off the coast of Mombasa, signalling a renewal of its oil exploration efforts in Kenya.

BG-Group (now owned by Shell Group) has been prospecting since 2011 at its South Coast blocks to determine whether they have commercially viable oil or gas deposits.

Fugro said the survey will seek to identify natural leakages of hydrocarbons (seep survey) in the L10A and L10B oil blocks that are situated in the South Coast area near Mombasa. The survey will complement the seismic exploration programme that was completed recently. Fugro regional business development manager in Africa Peter Boon said the firm has planned to send a specialised vessel to Kenya next month to conduct the survey which will last for four weeks.

SHARING CONTRACTS

“These important seabed surveys support the decision-making process for drilling operations, especially in frontier regions such as East Africa,” said Mr Boon in a statement.

BG-Group also has operations in four other African countries in Tanzania, Egypt, Madagascar and Tunisia.

In 2011, BG Group signed production sharing contracts with the government of Kenya for two offshore exploration blocks – L10A and L10B, held jointly with other exploration firms Pancontinental, Cove Energy ad Premier Oil.

BG Group has since completed three seismic surveys on the blocks.

Pancontinental made a discovery on the Sunbird-1 well in block L10A in 2014, but the discovery has yet to yield any more reserves of commercial value.

Kenya has witnessed increased oil exploration activity in the wake of the discovery of commercially viable crude deposits in Turkana by UK firm, Tullow Oil.

The country plans to go into early oil production by trucking some of its reserves from Turkana to Mombasa.