Yemisi Izuora
UK-based independent oil and gas company Savannah Petroleum has made a third oil discovery in Niger in as many months and is extending its drilling campaign in the area.
Savannah Petroleum has discovered oil bearing reservoir sandstones in the Kunama-1 exploration well it had drilled in the Agadem Rift Basin in Southeast Niger, the company said in a statement.
In late April, Savannah Petroleum made its first discovery, the Bushiya Oil Discovery, in the Agadem Rift Basin. In June, the UK company announced its second discovery in the area, the Amdigh Oil Discovery.
All three wells drilled have found light oil, Savannah Petroleum said.
Following the three successful discoveries, the company is extending its drilling campaign by exercising the first of six individual options for six additional well spuds. Drilling will now move on to the Eridal-1 well. The well site preparation is in the final stages of completion and is on schedule to accept the rig after it moves from the Kunama-1 well site.
“The Kunama discovery, following on from Amdigh and Bushiya, provides further encouragement for our plans to establish an early production scheme in Niger, which we expect to be able to provide an update on later in this quarter,” Andrew Knott, CEO of Savannah Petroleum, said.
In the Agadem basin in south east Niger, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has made 97 discoveries from the last 127 exploration wells. The basin has been in production since 2011 following a first phase of development by a CNPC-led joint venture of the Agadem PSC area, which is adjacent to Savannah permit areas, the UK company says.
Niger is a minor oil producer, with recent production at around 9, 000 barrels per day, bpd.
Niger, a landlocked country in Africa bordering Nigeria, has other resources it has two significant uranium mines providing around 7 percent of the world mining output from Africa’s highest-grade uranium ores and is the world’s fourth-ranking producer of uranium.