New Tanzania Natural Gas Discovery Offshore

Statoil ASA and coventurer ExxonMobil Corp have announced the discovery of an additional 2-3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Piri-1 well, which is located in the same Lower Cretaceous sandstones as the 2012 Tanzania natural gas discovery in the Zafarani-1 well. According to reports, the latest discovery marks the sixth total and fifth high impact discovery that has been made by Statoil ExxonMobil in Block 2 offshore Tanzania, bringing the total of in-place volumes up to about 20 tcf in Block 2. “Since 2012 we have had a 100% success rate in Tanzania and the area has become a core exploration area in a very short period of time,” said the senior vice president for Statoil’s exploration activities in the Western Hemisphere, Nick Maden. In the recently released statement, Maden went on to indicate that the company has already mapped additional prospects that will be tested through 2015 with the expectation that new exploration and appraisal wells will be drilled and that these will continue to support future large-scale gas infrastructure development. Statoil has operated in Tanzania since 2007 and, on behalf of the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), operates the license on Block 2 with a 65% working interest and has partnered with ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Ltd., who currently holds the remaining 35% of working interest.