Africa Oil Corporation to partner with Azinam on Block 3B/4B, offshore South Africa

Azinam, the Seacrest Capital-backed South West African-focussed oil & gas exploration company, has announced that Azinam and Africa Oil Corporation have entered in an agreement under which Africa Oil shall acquire a 20% participating interest in Block 3B/4B Orange Basin, offshore South Africa.

The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory consents, following which Africa Oil will become the operator of Block 3B/4B.

Azinam will retain a 20% participating interest post completion. Licence partners Ricocure (Pty) Ltd’s participating interest shall remain unchanged at 60%.

Block 3B/4B is located in the Deep Western Mid-Orange Basin South Africa, extending from circa 120 to 250 kms offshore. The block covers an area of 17,581 square kms and lies in water depths ranging from 300 to 2,500 metres.

Block 3B/4B sits at the centre of an exciting emerging play which is being explored by a number of international Oil & Gas companies.

3B/4B contains play types and prospects similar to those being targeted by Majors in adjacent blocks. During the Initial License Period of three years Azinam, Africa Oil and Ricocure shall carry out a regional subsurface review of existing seismic, geological and engineering data and may reprocess parts of the existing 3D data in order to high-grade the exploration prospects on the Block.

Daniel McKeown, Managing Director of Azinam, commented: “Azinam is delighted to welcome Africa Oil Corporation to the Block 3B/4B partnership. This extensive block lies at the centre of an exciting emerging exploration play which is being actively pursued by the international oil & gas industry.

“Partnering with Africa Oil on the Block 3B/4B brings extra resources, complementary experience and technical expertise to the Block’s Initial Period exploration programme.

Following the Brulpadda discovery earlier this year, momentum is building in the South Africa and Namibia exploration scenes, with several key wells to be drilled by industry in the coming year.

“Azinam has the largest licence position offshore South West Africa (South Africa and Namibia) with an extensive seismic database, giving it a strong regional understanding.

“Azinam’s two-year objective is exploit current low drilling costs to unlock the prospectivity of these high-potential regions of the Orange, Walvis and Lüderitz basins by participating in a number of high-impact exploration wells. Through partnering with like-minded companies, keen to inject pace into exploration programmes, we can create value for host countries, stakeholders and shareholders.”

Note: Azinam announced in May 2019 that it had acquired from Ricocure the operatorship and a 40% participating interest in Block 3B/4B Exploration Right, with Ricocure retaining a 60% participating interest.

Source: Energy-pedia