RE:Email reply from Simbakeeptryingok, found that article, Smb's rig in China to be shipped in/on/around June lol
Essel puts rig on menu for Kenya wildcat drive
EGME prepares for exploration drilling campaign on acreage onshore East Africa
Dubai-based Essel Group Middle East (EGME) is ready to go wildcatting this year in Block 2A onshore Kenya where it has just completed a 2D seismic survey.
Group chief executive Punkaj Gupta said EGME has placed an order for a high-specification newbuild rig, which it will own, and is set to spud the first probe in late 2017.
“I think, by the fourth quarter of 2017, we will be in position to start our first well,” he told Upstream.
“We are definitely going ahead with drilling and are in the process of finalising targets.”
EGME ordered the 2000-horspower AC-VFD (variable frequency drive) skid-mounted rig last year and it is due to be sent from a Chinese yard in June.
DNV-GL is overseeing purchase and delivery, with Gupta tentatively estimating the rig will cost EGME between $15 million and $18 million.
Earlier this month, Muscat-based Africa Geophysical Services completed a 520-kilometre 2D seismic survey in Block 2A, after EGME highlighted prospective areas based on full tensor gravity gradiometry (FTG) data.
Gupta said the 480-channel, high resolution 2D seismic data is good quality and he hopes interpretation will be completed next month.
He is optimistic about finding hydrocarbons given the presence of oil seeps on the northern edge of the block and positive signs of oil and gas in nearby, legacy exploration wells.
Exploration drilling will be carried out in the northwest part of the block, hundreds of kilometres from the restive border with Somalia.
If commercial volumes of oil are found, EGME is set to take a leaf out of Tullow Oil’s development playbook in Kenya’s Lokichar basin, where crude will initially be trucked to market by road before pipeline exports begin.
“Our prime focus is to develop the domestic market and create our own midstream business with a pipeline up to Lamu for export,” said Gupta.
Block 2A is not far from Kenya’s national highway and is close to the Lapsset corridor.
EGME intends to retain its 60% operating interest in Block 2A, where the company is partnered by Vancouver-based Simba Energy, in which it holds an estimated 25% stake.
The Dubai-based player is also a 60% partner with Simba in onshore assets in Guinea, Liberia, Chad and Ghana.
In blocks 1 and 2 in Guinea’s Bove basin, Gupta said an FTG survey is being planned with 2D seismic to follow.
In Liberia, the partners are in the process of re-activating their original licence in the form of a reconnaissance permit and expect to receive approval from the authorities any time now.
The Roberts Bassa basin block is currently the only acreage being licensed onshore Liberia, covering about 600 square kilometres over a failed rift play where oil seeps have been identified.
In Chad, Gupta said EGME is in talks with the government over a production sharing contract covering the Chari Sud I and II blocks in the Doba and Doseo rift basins.
“I think the PSC will be approved in the coming one-and-a-half months,” he said.
In Ghana’s Voltaian basin, EGME and Simba are carrying out preparatory studies ahead of starting talks on a new PSC.
Privately-owned EGME is getting the benefit from exploring while supply chain costs are low, but it is also on the hunt for cash flow from producing assets in order to help fund its exploration campaigns.
“We are looking at certain assets in the market which are producing oil and which can generate revenues,” said Gupta. “We always seek to drive revenues.”
He told Upstream that assets in three continents – Africa, Europe and South America – are being evaluated.