SacOil upbeat about Nigerian assets

SACOIL says its Nigerian assets are 18 to 24 months away from producing revenue.

The group, a South Africa-based, independent African oil and gas company listed on the JSE and London’s Alternative Investment Market, has operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Botswana and Nigeria.

Releasing its quarterly operations update on Friday, the group said it was pleased with the progress of its existing portfolio of exploration and appraisal assets, and continued to evaluate opportunities to secure new value in other established African hydrocarbon basins.

“The DRC, Malawian, Botswana and Nigerian assets are in varying stages of exploration and appraisal. SacOil’s vision is to build a balanced hydrocarbon exploration and production portfolio in Africa with established production and cash flow,” said vice president of operations Bradley Cerff.

“SacOil continues to make strides in understanding the technical and commercial merits of its projects through the execution of the current work being performed,” said Mr Cerff.

“We remain confident and optimistic that expenditure on the Nigerian assets will result in reserve addition and, ultimately, hydrocarbon production,” he said.

He said SacOil’s management team was focused on progressing the current assets and opportunities.

The company’s operations update listed the Nigerian assets as one of the highlights.

“SacOil’s consultants have reviewed the existing seismic data in more detail and updated their internal understanding of hydrocarbon resources in the area, known as OPL 233 in Nigeria,” said Mr Cerff.

“We are optimistic on the contingent resources and potential upside. In addition, (joint venture) partners and consultants to SacOil have identified a number of additional prospective leads for subsequent investigation and possible drilling,” he said.

In the DRC, Total has successfully acquired a concession to conduct exploration in an area known as Block III. Results confirm the geological trend, observed in the adjacent concessions in Uganda, which were also found to be oil bearing.

Following the award of the 12,265km² area known as Block I in Malawi — the second-largest petroleum exploration licence demarcated in Malawi — in December 2012, SacOil is planning an environmental and social impact assessment. SacOil has an exclusive 100% interest and operator status in this block.

“Through initial work and assessments completed, SacOil’s technical team anticipates that the same tertiary rift system as found in Uganda could possibly be present in Malawi, which may potentially yield deposits of hydrocarbons,” said Mr Cerff.

SacOil is currently aiming to have all environmental work completed by the third quarter of 2014. Initial planning associated with the environmental and social impact assessments are under way in consultation with the Malawian government.

In Botswana, SacOil has embarked on a process of collating the geological information available on the petroleum prospectivity pertaining to three licences covering about 49,463 square kilometres. A review of this information is currently under way.

Source: BDLive