Ekales-1 wildcat, located between Ngamia-1 and Twiga South-1, is home to the newly discovered oil well which has a net oil pay of reservoirs of between 60 and 100 meters.
The oil exploring company, Tullow, said that the reservoir propertied at this location look the same as the ones the encountered previously.
The company also revealed that it had begun drilling at the Agete-1 well mid this month and it expected the third gear to be in operation in fourth quarter this year.
“This success at the Ekales-1 wildcat is further evidence of the exceptional oil potential of our East African Rift Basin acreage,” said Angus McCoss, the exploration director at Tullow Oil. “Having opened the first basin with the Ngamia-1 well last year, we are now increasing the pace of exploration in Kenya aiming for 12 wells over the next 12 months.”
The company also found 40 meters of oil in Etuko-1 in July. This well is estimated to have combined resources of 300 million barrels (mmbo).
Tullow said that a similar test done on Twiga-1 and Ngamia-1 have established that the two wells alone have potential of 250mmbo
The discovery comes after Africa Oil, Tullow’s prospecting partner, raised fivefold the estimated deposits in the Lokichar basin to 368 million barrels of oil.
“Based on the drilling and testing programme over the past year we have confirmed the South Lokichar Basin contains gross contingent resources of 368 million barrels of oil, an increase of 557 per cent,” said Africa Oil chief executive Keith Hill, earlier this month.
It is clear that Kenya will one day become a huge exporter of oil at this rate, which will result in employment creation, attracting more investors as well as economic growth.