By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 17 -- Baraka Petroleum Ltd., Perth, let a contract for $3.7 million in airborne exploration surveys on five blocks in the nonproducing Taoudeni basin in northern Mali.
Blocks 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9, all held by Baraka, extend eastward from the border with Mauritania (see maps, OGJ, May 23, 2005, p. 40).
The company plans to collect 235,400 line km of radiometric and magnetic data and 44,346 line km of gravimetry data from a base in Timbouktou. UTS Geophysics will handle the magnetic and radiometric survey, and Worley Parsons GPX will carry out the gravimetry survey.
Baraka said results from the first exploration period on the blocks revealed "the potential location of the Silurian shale within the oil window and the identification of very large structures with potential for Infracambrian gas discoveries."
The characteristics are similar to those in Algeria and Libya to the north, Baraka added. It said Taoudeni could have Silurian shale within the oil window over 30,000 to 80,000 sq km.
The airborne survey, set for late 2005 to mid-2006, "will enable the company to better define the distribution of the Silurian shale within the oil window and provide more definite targets for future oil and gas exploration," Baraka said.
Subject to the outcome of the initial survey, Baraka plans a higher line density survey and a geochemistry program for areas of interest.
