It seems as though East Africa is receiving a lot of attention for its frequent oil discoveries. The latest two large oil fields were discovered in Northern region of Kenya, an African nation undergoing intensified oil exploration. Africa Oil which is the company responsible for such discoveries is a Canadian oil and gas company with assets in Kenya and Ethiopia as well as Somalia through its 45% equity interest in Horn Petroleum Corporation.
These two wells continue the 100% success rate in the South Lokichar Basin with seven out of seven discoveries to date. Kenya, still considered a “frontier exploration” field, has witnessed a series oil-based transaction. Kenya’s attractiveness as a destination for foreign direct investments (FDI) improved after the new oil discoveries that occurred in 2012.
Kenya has a huge mineral potential but its exploration efforts have only picked in the last 5 years with the awarding of commercial licences in prospecting for oil, gold, coal, geothermal and rare earths.
Based on results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluid, the Amosing-1 well has intersected potential net oil pay of 160 to 200 meters, significantly exceeding pre-drill expectations. On the eastern side of the basin known as the rift flank play, the company said, the Ewoi-1 well has encountered potential net pay of 20 to 80 meters and has continued to de-risk the basin flank play opened up by the Etuko-1 well in 2013 located 4 kilometers to the east.
The continued success of our exploration program in northern Kenya will allow exploration companies to drive development plans forward with greater certainty. Africa Oil has made it public that the wells will be suspended for future flow testing which will confirm the net pay counts after the completion of logging operations. These two rigs will mobilize to drill the Emong-1 prospect, and the Twiga South-2 appraisal well.
