Offshore staff
LONDON – Kenya’s government has awarded block L15 in the offshore Lamu basin, offshore Kenya to Dominion Petroleum. In March, Dominion also secured offshore block L9.
Under the heads of agreement, Dominion will operate block L15 with a 100% working interest, with the production sharing contract due to be signed in the next few weeks in Nairobi.
The company now operates three blocks off Kenya and Tanzania to the south, and expects to adopt a partnering strategy to drill the acreage.
L15 is immediately north of block L8, where the prospective 1 Bbbl Mbawa prospect will likely be drilled in mid-2012. And like L9, the new block is on the Davy-Walu structural trend.
Other operators plan to drill along the Davy-Walu trend over the next year, potentially de-risking prospectivity in both Dominion’s blocks before making firm drilling commitments.
In 1985, Union Oil drilled the Kofia-1 well on L15, encountering oil shows in Palaeogene and Upper Cretaceous intervals.
The initial exploration period of the PSC is for two years, with a minimum work commitment of $2.85 million, including acquisition of 250 sq km (96 sq mi) of 3D seismic data.
Thereafter, there is an option to relinquish the PSC or commit to another two-year exploration period with one obligation well.
08/02/2011
