Oranto Petroleum Ltd. has been granted renewal of its oil exploration license in Uganda for 2 additional years. The extension, effective from December 2023, allows Oranto to continue exploration and appraisal drilling in Ngassa block covering the Ngassa Deep and Ngassa Shallow exploration areas.
The block is in Lake Albert immediately north of the CNOOC-operated Kingfisher field. Closures at different stratigraphic levels have been mapped, which may yield in place oil volumes of 311 million bbl. A barge is required to drill vertical wells to test shallow gas plays identified on seismic data and a deeper mega closure anticipated to host recoverable oil reserves of greater than 100 million bbl.
Oranto has held the license for these areas since 2017 (OGJ Online, Oct. 10, 2017). Ngassa block was previously held by Tullow Oil PLC which drilled two wells which confirmed the presence of both a shallow gas play and a deeper oil play. Export of fluids to be produced from the bock will be via the 1,444-km pipeline spanning Tanzania to the port of Tanga.
