Pancontinental Oil & Gas has discovered massive gas deposits at Kenya’s Mbawa prospect well in the Kenyan coast, the Australian joint venture partner has confirmed.
This is the first gas discovery offshore KenyaThe Mbawa-1 well operated by Apache hit 52 net metres of gas pay in the primary Cretaceous sandstone target, the company announced.
Pancontinental Oil & Gas with its strategic partners will drill the well to a planned depth of 3275 metres.
Pancontinental owns 15% of Block L8 in Kenya, and its joint venture partners are operator Apache (50%), Origin Energy (20%) and Tullow Oil (15%).
Apache has been operating the well with drillship Deepsea Metro 1 in a water depth of 860 metres.
Apache which is involved in the primary spudding says there is a secondary target reservoir along the way, meaning a new disovery could be made soon.
Pancontinental chief executive Barry Rushworth said Mbawa is “the first ever substantive hydrocarbon discovery offshore Kenya. We are delighted to prove that there is a working hydrocarbon system offshore Kenya.
“With drilling continuing to a deeper exploration target, these interim results may be the first part of the story in this well, and they are certainly just the beginning of the main story of oil and gas exploration offshore Kenya,” he said
The firms halted trading of their shares in the stock markets so that they could make the announcement.| FOR MORE CLICK: Energy Intelligence
