Kenya offshore oil search encouraging

NAIROBI – Promising early results from a fresh hunt for oil off Kenya have prompted exploration firm Woodside Energy to plan extensive further surveys, the company said yesterday.

Woodside, a subsidiary of Australia’s Woodside Petroleum, will later this year begin 3D mapping of four exploration blocks totalling 20 000 sq km off Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast after rough first searches showed positive signs. Oil exploration has grown in recent years in east Africa, driven by heightened competition in more established production areas and advances in technology that could turn up deposits missed in the past.”We are significantly encouraged to stay here in Kenya because the geological ingredients in the areas where we will focus our attention are promising,” Woodside general manager Peter Grant told a news conference.Engineers hope to sink a first exploratory well off Kenya by the end of 2005, Grant said.The state-run National Oil Corporation of Kenya called in Woodside in 2003 to conduct the first search for fossil fuels in the country for a decade.The firm spent US$6 million and used new technology including complex computer modelling and long cables to probe waters up to 3,000m deep for an initial snapshot of Kenya’s oil potential.Now engineers will prioritise the four most promising exploration blocks, equal in area to all of Woodside’s operations in home country Australia, and move to the next phase at a cost up to US$100 million.The firm will begin oil production in Mauritania in 2006, and already operates off Sierra Leone and Spain’s Canary Islands, in the Gulf of Mexico and inland in Algeria.Even if oil was found, production of Kenya’s first barrel would take a minimum of four years, after drilling, appraisal and development stages.Kenya hoped to shift from being an oil importer to becoming an oil exporter if the search proved fruitful, energy minister Ochilo Ayacko told the news conference.- Nampa-ReutersOil exploration has grown in recent years in east Africa, driven by heightened competition in more established production areas and advances in technology that could turn up deposits missed in the past.”We are significantly encouraged to stay here in Kenya because the geological ingredients in the areas where we will focus our attention are promising,” Woodside general manager Peter Grant told a news conference.Engineers hope to sink a first exploratory well off Kenya by the end of 2005, Grant said.The state-run National Oil Corporation of Kenya called in Woodside in 2003 to conduct the first search for fossil fuels in the country for a decade.The firm spent US$6 million and used new technology including complex computer modelling and long cables to probe waters up to 3,000m deep for an initial snapshot of Kenya’s oil potential.Now engineers will prioritise the four most promising exploration blocks, equal in area to all of Woodside’s operations in home country Australia, and move to the next phase at a cost up to US$100 million.The firm will begin oil production in Mauritania in 2006, and already operates off Sierra Leone and Spain’s Canary Islands, in the Gulf of Mexico and inland in Algeria.Even if oil was found, production of Kenya’s first barrel would take a minimum of four years, after drilling, appraisal and development stages.Kenya hoped to shift from being an oil importer to becoming an oil exporter if the search proved fruitful, energy minister Ochilo Ayacko told the news conference.- Nampa-Reuters