Page 17 - AfrOil Week 40 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

The other shareholders are Mozambique oil company (NOC) of Mozambique
Rovuma Venture (MRV), a joint venture owned Strong European demand recently led Eni to
by Eni, ExxonMobil (US) and China National consider expanding Coral South LNG by adding
Petroleum Corp. (CNPC); Galp (Portugal); a second floating LNG facility to expand pro-
KOGAS (South Korea), and ENH, the national duction within less than four years. ™

Eco Atlantic receives rig for drilling of

Gazania-1 well offshore South Africa

SOUTH AFRICA UK-BASED Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas said on well that we are confident that the decades of sci-
October 4 that it had taken delivery of the rig ence will prove out. This well is being drilled to
that it will use to drill the Gazania-1 exploration define the opportunity and the initial path in the
well at Block 2B offshore South Africa in the basin. We are drilling this strictly as an explora-
Orange basin. tion well. Once we have defined the resources
In a statement, Eco Atlantic reported that the here, South Africa and the [joint venture] part-
Island Innovator rig, owned by Island Drilling ners will make [their] choices, and we will deter-
Co., had arrived at the Gazania-1 drilling site, mine the next stage of development.”
which is about 25 km from Northern Cape. This Eco Atlantic acquired its 50% stake in
now allows for operations to commence on the and operatorship of the Block 2B project via
exploration drilling programme, it said, without its takeover of Azinam Group, which holds
specifying a target date for the spudding of the equity stakes in a number of blocks offshore
well. South Africa and Namibia, earlier this year.
Previously, Eco Atlantic had said that it The remaining equity in the joint venture is
expected to finish drilling Gazania-1 in about 25 split between Africa Energy Corp. (Canada),
days. The well will be drilled to a depth of 2,800 with 27.5%; Panoro 2B, a subsidiary of Pan-
metres, targeting a stacked pay section up-dip oro Energy (Norway), with 12.5%; and Crown
of a previous discovery at the AJ-1 site, within a Energy (Sweden), with 10%. ™
proven oil horizon. It will be sealed and plugged
after testing, with no equipment left behind on
the seabed afterwards.
In the event of a discovery within the main
target, Eco Atlantic and its partners have
approved an option for the drilling of a sidetrack
well at Gazania-1. The companies have said they
hope to find up to 300mn barrels of light crude
oil at the site.
Colin Kinley, Eco Atlantic’s founder and
COO, expressed optimism about the outcome
of the drilling project, saying he hoped it would
open up a new hydrocarbon province offshore
South Africa.
“Drilling Gazania-1 offers a significant
opportunity to South Africa to open up the
Orange basin. A number of prior discoveries
in the region are changing the understanding
of this basin both in South Africa and Namibia,
where recent multi-billion-barrel discoveries
have opened the gate to a new era of economic
and resource opportunity,” he said, referring to
the Luiperd and Brulpadda natural gas and con-
densate finds made by TotalEnergies (France)
offshore South Africa, as well as the Graff-1
and Venus-1x finds made by Shell (UK) and
TotalEnergies offshore Namibia.
Kinley also stressed the fact that oil had pre-
viously been found at a section of Block 2B, say-
ing: “The discovery at AJ-1 is extremely helpful
in creating the opportunity on the Gazaina-1 The Gazania-1 drilling site is about 25 km from Northern Cape (Image: Eco Atlantic)

Week 40 06•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P17