Kenya’s state oil company was set to receive offers this week from potential partners keen on securing a stake in an onshore block in the proven Tertiary Rift basin, writes Iain Esau.

The National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) operates Block 14T adjacent to the Tanzania border and just south of blocks 10BB and 13T, which host Tullow Oil’s South Lokichar oil project.

Farm-in offers for the 7000 square-kilometre tract in the Magadi sub-basin will be ranked largely on whether interested parties are operators, either onshore or offshore, or non-operators, and the years of experience as operator.

More weight will be given to offers that include a carry for Nock and address technology transfer and local content.

It is understood that Nock aims to complete a farm-in agreement by the end of this year.

Since Nock was awarded a production-sharing contract for the block in 2010, it has acquired aeromagnetic, gravity and seismic surveys with one stratigraphic well drilled last year.

Nock collaborated with Japan’s Jogmec to acquire all the data, including 500 kilometres of 2D seismic over the “clearly defined” Magadi sub-basin depocenter.

Upstream was told previously that when Jogmec supports upstream data gathering activities over acreage, Japanese oil companies have an inherent advantage when it comes to bidding.

In its 2018 annual report, Jogmec said it had “obtained preferential rights for Japanese companies to enter (Block 14T), having held a technical briefing for domestic companies in March last year (2018)".

“We will continue evaluating the potential of the area with the aim of handing the project over to Japanese companies,” the Jogmec report added.

The most prospective part of the acreage is at the southern end of the block, about 100 kilometres west and south-west of Nairobi.

Beyond Tullow’s successful exploration and appraisal drilling campaign in the Lokichar basin, Kenya has no other commercial discoveries.

Pate-2, the most recent onshore well, was completed on Pate Island in March this year by Zarara Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Midway Resources International.

Located in Lamu basin blocks L4 and L13, the probe was drilled to a total depth of 4307 metres, penetrated the primary Lower Tertiary Kipini objective and hit 23 metres of net gas pay which was described by Midway as “unlikely to be commercial.”

Zarara is evaluating the extent of the Kipini sands, on the hunt for thicker sands.

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Nock to weigh up partners