Bounty Oil & Gas NL (“Bounty”) announces an update on the Nyuni Area PSA and the Kiliwani North development, following an announcement to LSX by the operator, Aminex PLC.
Bounty holds a 5% participating interest in both projects. The expanded Nyuni Area PSA was issued to the joint venture in October 2011 and comprises onshore, transition zone and deep water acreage. The deep water area in the eastern portion of the block accounts for approximately 30% of the PSA.
Ophir Energy, operator of the adjoining East Pande block, has announced that it is acquiring 3D seismic across its block including a large stratigraphic feature with multi‐TCF gas potential, identified in a published Ophir paper as Lead 3, that appears to extend from East Pande into the deep water sector of the Nyuni Block. Aminex’s own analysis of existing seismic data partially covering this feature within the Nyuni block supports this conclusion.
To investigate the full potential of the deep‐water zone, the joint venture initially plans to shoot 500 kilometres of 2D seismic in the deep water in the second half of 2012.
An additional 350 kilometres of 2D seismic is planned to commence in the transition zone in the coming weeks. The combined transition zone and deep water seismic programmes will fulfil the seismic work commitment required under the initial work period of the Nyuni Area PSA. This seismic will further enhance the joint venture’s understanding of the geology of the licence and will be used to target future drilling, including deep water targets.
A new geological and seismic study has been commissioned to identify further prospects and update resource estimates for the Nyuni Area PSA. Bounty will also now review the seismic database for the deep water section of Nyuni PSA.
Kiliwani North Development Licence
As previously announced the joint venture has completed the engineering design for the Kiliwani North‐1 (KN‐1) tie‐in to the Songas Processing plant. The 6” line pipe to connect KN‐1 to the processing plant is expected to be delivered by the end of June 2012.
Efforts to secure access to infrastructure for Kiliwani North gas have been hampered by capacity restrictions to the existing processing plant and pipeline. The Government of Tanzania is finalising financing arrangements with the Chinese Exim Bank for new pipeline and processing plant infrastructure that will include additional processing and transportation capacity from Songo Songo Island.
In the meantime the operator has been negotiating a short‐term agreement to tie‐in to the existing facilities. However, despite best efforts, the operator has not reached an agreement for tie‐in on commercially acceptable terms. The operator looks forward to resuming investment in Kiliwani North when the new processing plant and gas pipeline plans have been finalised.
[mappress] Subsea World News Staff , May 21, 2012; Image: Bounty