Orca Exploration Begins Drilling New Gas Well in Tanzania
Orca Exploration Group Inc. (ORC/B)’s Tanzanian unit said it started drilling a new production well at the offshore Songo Songo gas field that is expected to almost double the company’s output.
The SS-11 well will increase production to more than 200 million standard cubic feet per day “in the coming months,” from 113 million standard cubic feet per day now, PanAfrican Energy Tanzania Ltd. said today in an e-mailed statement in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital.
The project is part of a $130 million investment plan under which the company imported the Sakson PR5 rig for drilling, according to the statement. PanAfrican also plans to drill a $35 million offshore well under the same project.
“We’re looking forward to continuing to work with our partners to help meet Tanzania’s energy needs,” said PanAfrican General Manager Andrew Brown said in the statement.
Tanzania, East Africa’s second-biggest economy, may have as much as 10 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, Energy Minister William Ngeleja said in September. About 85 percent of PanAfrican’s gas production is supplied to the Tanzania Electric Supply Co. to generate power, according to PanAfrican.
The country has two gas deposits in commercial production. Songo Songo holds 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas, while Mnazi Bay, near the border with Mozambique, has 2 trillion cubic feet, the state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp. said in October 2010.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Malingha Doya in Dar es Salaam via Nairobi at 440 or pmrichardson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
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