The company has lined up the drillship DeepVenture for the Kunene-1 exploration well in Block 1711 but the spud date depends on when the vessel completes its stint with ExxonMobil off Angola.

This is anticipated to be about 25 February, according to Toronto-listed minnow EnerGulf Resources, which is one of Sintezneftegaz' partners.

The other partners are PetroSA and Namcor, the respective state oil companies of South Africa and Namibia.

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