Progress on African Petroleum in West Africa
Between 21 and 23, March 2012 African Petroleum Corporation, one of the largest net exploration acreage holders in the West Africa, has confirmed some discoveries, adding to its portfolio of oil exploration exploit in the region.
According to Petroleum Africa, the world’s leading magazine dedicated to following the petroleum industry in Africa, the company, which is looking to build on its success with the drilling of the Narina-1 well offshore Liberia, has secured a rig for further drilling.
It has signed a contract with Ocean Rig UDW, for a two-well program with the option for a third well, to continue its drilling program in Blocks 8 and 9 in its concession area.
The wells will be drilled using a sophisticated deep water semi-submersible drilling rig. Works are scheduled to start between September and December 2012.
In a related move African Petroleum Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary in Côte d’Ivoire has picked up more acreage in that country. The company has just entered into an agreement with state-run Petroci and the government to acquire one offshore exploration permit covering Block CI-509. The block is located in offshore western Cote d’Ivoire and covers a total surface area of 1,091.37 square kilometres. African Petroleum will be the operator holding a 90% stake while the government owned Petroci will hold the remaining 10%.
The company’s exploration program will target deep water Upper Cretaceous submarine fans in Cote d’Ivoire which are considered to have similar high impact potential as discoveries in the Jubilee field in Ghana, the Narina-1 in Liberia, and the Jupiter and Mercury discoveries in Sierra Leone. All works in this regard are expected to commence any time soon.
Frank Timis, non-executive chairman noted that African Petroleum was already “one of the largest net exploration acreage holders in the West African transform margin focussed on the newly emerging and highly successful Upper Cretaceous exploration fairway.”
He concluded that: “Together with the earlier award of Block CI‐513, this award of CI‐509 underlines African Petroleum’s commitment to building a high grade exploration portfolio in the proven oil basin of Côte d’Ivoire and accelerating exploration in the region. This additional block adds further to African Petroleum’s strategy of building an extensive portfolio in proven Upper Cretaceous basins in Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Liberia as well as building on our pre-eminent position in the frontier Gambia/Senegal Western Margin.”
Tanu Jalloh, Freetown
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