Zarara Oil & Gas Ltd., a subsidiary of Midway Resources International, reported that it has spudded Pate-2 natural gas well on its production sharing contracts on Blocks L4 and L13 near Port Lamu in Kenya.
A drilling rig from Drilling Spares & Services Ltd. is drilling and running 20-in. casing for Pate-2 and Pate-3 wells to 300 m. Zarara also has a contract for the Sakson Rig SK604 owned by Sakson Drilling & Oil Services DMCC to complete drilling each well to a target depth of 4,500 m.
The current drilling campaign follows a 4-year evaluation program by Zarara involving 2D seismic over the original Pate-1 discovery area. Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC drilled Pate-1 in 1970. That well was plugged and abandoned because of downhole gas-control issues and for lack of a regional gas market at the time.
Pate-2 was stepped out 300 m from the Pate-1 well. Targets are the basal Kipini sandstones that flowed gas in Pate-1 as well as Paleocene-Cretaceous sands.
Zara Chief Operating Officer Austen Titford of Zarara’s Nairobi office said Pate-2 confirmed the original Pate-1 discovery. Pate-3 will be drilled directionally from the same site as Pate-2.
Kenya’s government currently holds 10% carried interest. If commercial, the government has rights to another 10% interest. Zarara holds the remainder.
Midway Resources is a private company with oil and gas interests in Kenya and Nigeria.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected].
