Page 17 - AfrOil Week 23

AfrOil
nEws in BRiEf
AfrOil
(Namibia) (Pty) Limited and Arcadia Expro Namibia (Pty) Ltd, relinquished in 2015.
e current agreement is structured to comprise an Initial Exploration Period of
four years (which may be extended to ve
in appropriate circumstances), followed by options for Tower and its partners to enter a First and Second Renewal Period of two years each. e work programme for the Initial Exploration Period comprises regional play fairway evaluation and acreage high-grading activities. Namibia has seen considerable commercial and operational activity, with the Cormorant and Prospect S wells being drilled by Tullow and Chariot respectively in the last quarter of 2018, and more recently Exxon and Tullow farming into several blocks since the year-end.
In South Africa, our co-venturer and operator NewAge has been conducting further studies on the considerable amount of 2D and 3D data that we have on the leads and prospects in the three basins that are present in our Algoa-Gamtoos license, while also waiting for the result of Total’s Brulpadda well which was drilled on the license adjoining ours to the West, on a deepwater prospect
in the Outeniqua basin. is basin is one of the three present in the license, so we were delighted to see, a er the year-end, that Total has made a substantial, 1 billion boe gas/ condensate discovery.
NewAge is presently conducting a farm- out process, with the aim of bringing in an additional co-venturer before we begin the next two-year renewal phase of the license, which will involve further 3D seismic data acquisition and processing. Since the year- end, NewAge also updated its estimates of resources on the Algoa Gamtoos license, which now comprise unrisked mean prospective resources of 664 million boe recoverable from ve leads and prospects in the Algoa, Gamtoos and Outeniqua basins, including a potential 364 million boe Deep Albian structure, analogous to Brulpadda in the Outeniqua Basin Slope.
towER REsouRCEs, june 4, 2019
East afRiCa
Somali-Kenya row simmers
Citing leaked Somalia documents, Kenya’s e East African has reported Mogadishu
is auctioning o contested blocks. Somalia held a rst exhibition of its blocks in 2018 in London, provoking a diplomatic spat with Nairobi. e two countries are in the process of arbitration on the issues.
Kenya blocked Somali diplomats from attending a conference in Nairobi, in May.
Somalia has ordered all NGOs working in the country from Nairobi to relocate.
Citing Somali documents, the newspaper said the country’s o shore had similarities with successful plays in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.
IMF upbeat on South Sudan oil return
e peace agreement signed in September 2018 has improved the prospects for lasting peace and economic recovery. e cessation of hostilities last year has already enabled the reopening of some damaged oil wells, which pushed up daily oil production (export) from about 120,000 barrels per day in 2017/18 to about 145,000 barrels per day in February 2019.
In ation has gradually declined to about 40 percent in December 2018 from a peak of 550 percent in September 2016, while the exchange rate depreciated substantially in the last 18 months. Repayment of nancial obligations to Sudan and oil-collateralized loans absorbed nearly all the oil revenue in 2017/18.
Directors noted that additional reforms, including to improve governance, will be needed to foster more diverse, inclusive growth. ey expressed concern about the lack of transparency of Nilepet’s nancial operations and called for a transparent audit to ensure that its planned investments in oil production and related activities are cost- e ective and growth-enhancing. Production is expected to rise to 48.6 million barrels in 2018-19 and continue rising, reaching 67.2 million barrels in 2022-23.
e sector’s potential is large and scaling
it up is key to rebuilding economic bu ers and supporting the transition to peace. In this regard, the South Sudanese authorities have
stepped up e orts to restore oil production capacity to its pre-war levels. Oil production capacity is still low compared to the sizable unexploited oil reserves. Estimates by the Oil and Gas Journal (2014) put South Sudan’s proven oil reserves at 3.75 billion barrels, which potentially could make South Sudan the third largest oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Prospects to increase oil production to pre- war levels rest on using enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in the existing oil wells and new oil discoveries. To sustain high levels of production and extend the life of the mature oil wells, oil companies need to invest in
EOR techniques (middle scenario). However, reaping the full peace dividend, where
new exploration opens for new oil ows, production could reach a peak of 350,000 barrels/day in about 10 years.
iMf, june 4, 2019
Oranto completes Ngassa shoot
Oranto Petroleum has completed its data seismic survey on Uganda’s Ngassa Block, the Independent said. e company contracted IMC Geophysical Services to carry out the work, which started in mid-April and ran for a month.
e work covered 326 line km in Lake Albert. e block is on the eastern bank
of Lake Albert. It had been part of EA 2, which was held by Tullow Uganda, but was relinquished.
e report said the data would be combined with existing 2D and 3D seismic
to provide more insight into the northeastern part of the Ngassa prospect. Shooting this data helps Oranto meet its obligations for work in the rst two-year exploration phase, which runs until October 2019.
Week 23 11•June•2019
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