Tullow Oil Plc is drilling its third operated well and the fourth in which it is a participant, in Kenya. The company opened up the country as a possibly commercial hydrocarbon province, with Ngamia 1 oil discovery (in Block 10BB), logging 143 metres of oil pay over several zones and suspending the well at a total depth of 2,430metres at the end of June 2012. The company proceeded to spud Twiga South 1(Block 13T) on August 31, two months after suspending Ngamia. Results are expected in October 2012.
Meanwhile, Tullow was a 15% participant in the drilling of the offshore well Mbawa-1(Block L8), in the Lamu Basin, operated by Apache. The well encountered 52 metres of net gas pay, the first commercial encounter in offshore Kenya. It was plugged and abandoned in mid -September 2012.
Now the Irish company has spudded Paipai-1 in the onshore Block 10A, with plan to drill to a total depth of 4,112 metres, testing Cretaceous and Jurassic sandstone targets. Tullow holds a 50% working interest, with Africa Oil ( 30% )working interest in the Block. The Paipai-1 is being drilled using the Sakson PR-5 rig and is targeting gross best estimated prospective resources of 121 million barrels by the Company’s independent resource evaluator.
In onshore Ethiopia, Tullow is finalizing plans to mobilize the OGEC-75 rig for the exploration drilling campaign that is planned to commence with the Sabisa-1 well in the South Omo Block near the end December 2012.
