Oil and gas company Azinam, soon to be acquired by Eco Atlantic, has hired Island Drilling's Island Innovator semi-submersible drilling rig to drill the Gazania-1 well offshore S. Africa. The news comes in the wake of the recent significant discoveries made by Shell and TotalEnergies in the Orange Basin in the nearby Namibia.
The news of the rig hire was shared by Africa Energy Corp., one of Azinam's partners in Block 2B, offshore South Africa. The drilling is expected to start at the Gazania-1 well by October 2022.
Garrett Soden, Africa Energy’s President and CEO, said: "We are pleased to secure the Island Innovator rig to drill a high-impact oil exploration well this year on Block 2B. The block has significant contingent and prospective resources in shallow water close to shore and includes the A-J1 discovery from 1988 that flowed light sweet crude oil to surface. Gazania-1 will target two large prospects seven kilometers up-dip from A-J1 in the same basin as the recent Venus and Graff discoveries.”
Credit: Azinam
Block 2B is located offshore South Africa in the Orange Basin. The Orange Basin straddles the offshore waters of Namibia and South Africa, where major discoveries on both the Graff-1 well, drilled by Shell, and the Venus-1 well, drilled by TotalEnergies, have recently been announced.
The block covers 3,062 square kilometers off the west coast of South Africa 300 kilometers north of Cape Town with water depths ranging from 50 to 200 meters. Oil was discovered and tested by Soekor in the A-J1 borehole drilled in 1988.
Thick reservoir sandstones were intersected between 2,985 meters and 3,350 meters. The well was tested and flowed 191 barrels of oil per day of 36-degree API oil from a 10-meter sandstone interval at about 3,250 meters. Significant prospectivity has been identified over the entire A-J graben area using 686 square kilometers of 3D seismic data acquired in 2013, Africa Energy Corp. said.
Africa Energy has a 27.5% participating interest in Block 2B offshore South Africa. Block 2B is operated by a subsidiary of Azinam Limited (“Azinam”), which holds a 50% participating interest. A subsidiary of Panoro Energy ASA holds a 12.5% participating interest with Crown Energy AB indirectly holding the remaining 10%. Subject to completion of a definitive agreement announced on February 8, 2022, Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Ltd. will acquire 100% of Azinam.
Colin Kinley Co-Founder and COO of Eco Atlantic commented:"We are pleased to be making progress in our exploration and drilling plans for 2022. We are planning for mobilization of the rig in late August and to spud shortly after arrival, with the experienced Island Drilling team and the Innovator Semi. We have good support from our partners at Africa Energy, Crown and Panoro and from the engineering advisors at NRG Group. We look forward to a successful, safe and environmentally conscious drilling program in Gazania-1."
Island Drilling said that the rig contract would, for the Island Innovator, fill the gap of work between Petrofac in the UK and Maersk Decom in Mauritania.
“We have been in dialog regarding this contract for a long time and we are happy to finally sign this contract. This will make the Island Innovator fully occupied during 2022.” says CEO Roger Simmenes of Island Drilling Company.
Subscribe
