Pancontinental Oil and Gas (18.75%) announced on 17 June that its L10A joint venture - with BG Group (50% operator) and Thailand's PTTEP (31.25%) - has confirmed that the recently completed offshore Sunbird-1 well has intersected an oil column. This is the first-ever oil discovered off the East African coast.
The gross oil column is assessed to be 14m thick beneath a gross gas column of 29.6m in a reefal limestone reservoir in the Sunbird Miocene Pinnacle Reef in area L10A. BG Group is now continuing to analyse the well data and will recommend a future exploration programme using the well results.
Pancontinental’s CEO Barry Rushworth said, “The Sunbird-1 oil is the historic first-ever oil discovery offshore Kenya,” and “We believe that this is a play-opening discovery in Kenya’s Lamu Basin. Because of the Sunbird discovery, we expect to see a significant increase in industry interest offshore Kenya."
For more news and expert analysis about East Africa, please see East Africa Politics & Security.
© 2014 Menas Associates
