Friday, June 20, 2014

Yet more gas after US and Norwegian firms make new discoveries


Drilling vessel belonging to Statoil and Exxon Mobil at work at a spot in offshore Tanzania.
Statoil and co-venturer Exxon Mobil’s have made another high impact natural gas discovery in Block 2 offshore Tanzania.


According to a statement issued by Statoil, the discovery of an additional 2 trillion to 3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas in place in the Piri-1 well brings the total of in-place volumes up to approximately 20 tcf in Block 2. (1 Tcf =180 million barrels of oil equivalent)

“Since 2012 we have had a 100 percent success rate in Tanzania and the area has become a core exploration area in a very short period of time. We quickly went from drilling one well to a multi-well programme and with Piri-1 we are continuing the success,” said Nick Maden, senior vice president of Statoil exploration activities in the Western Hemisphere.

The new gas discovery was made in the same Lower Cretaceous sandstones as the gas discovery in the Zafarani-1 well drilled in 2012.

The Piri-1 discovery is the venture's sixth discovery in Block 2. It was preceded by the four successful high-impact gas discoveries, Zafarani-1, Lavani-1, Tangawizi-1 and Mronge-1, and a sixth discovery in the Lavani-2 well beneath the Lavani-1 discovery, the statement added.

Piri-1 was drilled by the drillship Discoverer Americas. The well location is 2 kilometres southwest of the Lavani-1 well at 2,360-metre water depth. The Discoverer Americas has now moved location and is currently drilling the Binzari prospect in Block 2.

“The additional prospectivity has been mapped and will be tested throughout 2014 and 2015. We expect to drill several additional exploration and appraisal wells and hope that the results from these wells will continue to add gas volumes for a future large-scale gas infrastructure development,” Maden said.

Statoil operates the licence on Block 2 on behalf of Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and has a 65 percent working interest.
On the other hand ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited holds the remaining 35 percent.

Statoil has been in Tanzania since 2007, when it was awarded the operatorship for Block 2. 
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

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