RE:There is a rumour Don' forget that El kuran-3 is an appraisal well.
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The depth of the well is estimated at 2,800 meters and it will take three month to reach the targeted depth. Well testing will be conducted to determine the presence of oil and the amount of the deposit found in the region. New Age (African Global Energy) Limited works in the Ogaden basin Block 7, 8 and the Adigala concessions with its partner, Africa Oil, the Canadian oil firm. New Age (the operator) and Africa Oil selected an area in the El Kuran locality to drill the appraisal well. The well site was constructed, erection of the rig was completed at the site and the well was expected to spud last month.
Sources said that the drilling crew had repaired the drilling rig, adding that the drilling work is well under way. The well is operated by New African Global Energy. “In this well they know there is oil. The key thing here is to make it flow,” sources added. According to sources, the company is expected to try tracking or horizontal drilling.
In a report issued last July, Africa Oil said it is focusing on its concession in the Oganden basin. The report indicated that the company and its partners continue to focus on the El Kuran oil accumulation on Block 8, in the Ogaden basin discovered in the early 1970's. “After completing reservoir characterization studies, the company focused efforts on testing and completion strategies for producing commercial quantities of oil and gas.”
An American company that was prospecting for oil in the Ogaden basin, Tenneco, discovered oil flow in El Kuran-1 in 1973. At that time the oil reserve was not reported as a discovery. Tenneco believed that it was a non-commercial reserve. Tenneco, which discovered the Calub gas field in 1972, was expelled by the Socialist regime following the 1974 revolution.
Petroleum experts assert that at that time exploration technology was not advanced. The experts believe that now with new exploration technology Africa Oil and its partner New Age may confirm the existence of commercial oil and gas reserve in the region.
In the mid-1990s Hunt Oil, another American company drilled an exploration well at El Kuran locality-El Kuran-2 that turned out dry. Experts of Hunt before leaving Ethiopia told officials of the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines that there was oil in the Elkuran locality adding that they would find it if they drill a second well. However, the management of Hunt based in Huston, Texas, told the experts to relinquish the concession. Hunt discovered oil in Yemen in the 1980s. El Kuran is found near the Ethio-Somalia border.