British oil explorer, Tullow Oil, has announced a 4thoil discovery in Northern Kenya after disclosing that Ekales-1, a crude-rich reservoir, had a net pay of 60 – 100 metres.
The crude drilling firm noted that the estimated oil deposits are similar to the properties discovered at other exploration locations, including Ngamia-1 and Twiga South-1, adding that the success recorded from previous activities has spurred the London-based oil company into escalating its programme.
“This success at the Ekales-1 wildcat is further evidence of the exceptional oil potential of our East African Rift Basin acreage,” said Angus McCoss, the exploration director at Tullow Oil.
“Having opened the first basin with the Ngamia-1 well last year, we are now increasing the pace of exploration in Kenya aiming for 12 wells over the next 12 months.”
The oil and gas multinational, which also found a reported 40 metres of oil in Etuko-1 with an estimated 300 million barrels of oil (mmbo) in reserves, confirmed that Twiga-1 and Ngamia-1 has a potential resource of 250 mmbo.
This discovery comes just a few weeks after Tullow’s field scanning partner, Africa Oil, scaled the estimated reserves in Kenya’s Lokichar Basin 557 percent to 368 mmbo, noting that the volumes had exceeded the maximum for commercial development.
