Page 14 - AfrOil Week 49 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

This is the same rig the French major recently prospect since 2014. Venus-1X is a world-class,
used to drill the Ondjaba-1 well offshore Angola basin opening well which, if successful, could be
at a new world-record water depth of 3,628 transformative for Namibia.”
metres. Keith Hill, president and CEO of Africa Oil,
Impact’s CEO Siraj Ahmed said the spudding a shareholder in Impact, said he was extremely
of Venus-1X is an exciting moment for Impact pleased that drilling had begun. “As a potential
and its shareholders. “Impact, together with basin opening well, if successful, this could be
our partners in the government of Namibia, a high-impact catalyst for our shareholders,” he
has been working to mature and drill the Venus stated. ™

AGS set to launch seismic study

of Ruvuma block in mid-December

TANZANIA AFRICA Geophysical Services (AGS) of Oman
is reportedly on track to launch the first phase of
a 3D seismic survey programme at the Ruvuma
block in southern Tanzania in mid-December.
In a statement, UK-based Aminex, a non-op-
erating partner in the joint venture set up to
develop the block, said that AGS had begun pre-
paratory work at the licence area on November
15. Since then, the company noted, the Omani
firm has established its GPS control points and
has started calibrating its survey equipment for
ground staking. It is now due to begin line-clear-
ing work and to mobilise its camp within a week,
it reported.
AGS is also working to mobilise equipment
for the survey, Aminex said, citing information
from the operator of the Ruvuma block – ARA
Petroleum Tanzania (APT), a subsidiary of ARA
Petroleum of Oman. As of December 2, it noted,
the company’s five vibroseis trucks were ready
to be unloaded at the port of Dar Es Salaam, and
efforts to import receivers were moving forward
and slated to be wrapped up within a week. The Chikumbi-1 well is due to be spudded in Q3-2022 (Image: Aminex)
These activities will allow AGS to achieve full
mobilisation and begin its survey on December primarily on the area where the joint venture
15 as anticipated, Aminex said. It noted that the partners hope to drill the Chikumbi-1 explora-
contractor was slated to collect as much data tion well in the third quarter of 2022.
as possible over the next few months, weather The exploration programme will help deter-
permitting, and would then ramp up its activity mine the size of the Ruvuma block’s gas reserves.
after the end of the next rainy season in the late APT has estimated that Ntorya, the largest field
quarter of 2022. within the licence area, contains 3.024 trillion
Charlie Santos, the executive chairman of cubic feet (85.63bn cubic metres) of mean risked
Aminex, called the start of 3D seismic work gas in place (GIP), with mean risked recovera-
at Ruvuma a positive development. “We are ble GIP at 1.99 trillion cubic feet (56.35 bcm). It
delighted to provide this update on operations drew up those figures after completing a techni-
on the ground in Tanzania,” he said. “The acqui- cal programme that involved revised mapping
sition of a modern 3D survey over the target and internal management estimates.
area, including the Ntorya discovery, is a signif- Aminex is the original leader of the Ruvuma
icant step for the joint venture and, tied with the project, but in October 2020, it concluded a
upcoming well, will further define this impor- farm-out agreement with APT. The two compa-
tant Tanzanian gas resource.” nies are now working together in a joint venture
According to previous reports, the seismic that provides for the latter to carry the former’s
survey will allow Aminex and APT’s contractor 25% participating share of associated field devel-
to collect about 338 square km of 3D seismic opment costs, or up to $35mn of estimated total
data from Ruvuma. The programme will focus development expenditures of $140mn. ™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 49 08•December•2021