Aminex Secures Rig for Tanzania
UK-listed Aminex said September 23 it has executed a rig contract for the drilling of the Ntorya-2 appraisal well in southern Tanzania’s onshore Ruvuma basin. The Caroil 2 drilling rig is currently on the Ntorya 1 well pad and preparations are underway to mobilize the rig and equipment to the Ntorya 2 pad. The contract is for one firm well with an option for a second well.
Aminex says it remains on track to spud Ntorya-2 during Q4 2016. It is operator with a 75% working interest in this well, which is 1.5km southwest of the Ntorya-1 discovery well that flow tested at 20 mn ft3/d with 139 bbls associated condensate. Fellow UK firm Solo Oil has the other 25% interest; its chairman Neil Ritson said: “We are delighted that the appraisal process at Ntorya is now gaining momentum.”
Map showing the Ruvuma block and various Tanzania discoveries (Map credit: Aminex)
Both are already partners, with differing equity shares, on the producing Kiliwani North gas field, further north off Tanzania’s Songo Songo island.
A week ago Shell, with partners Ophir and Pavilion, confirmed it expects to start a new $100mn, two-well deepwater drilling campaign on its much richer blocks 1 and 4 offshore Tanzania; already resources of 17 trillion ft3 (482bn m3) have been found on those two blocks alone.
Mark Smedley