Africa Oil Corp has announced that the government of South Africa has approved the acquisition of a 20 per cent stake in Block 3B/4B Exploration Right from Azinam Limited by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Africa Oil SA Corp
Africa Oil will assume operatorship for the joint venture partners; Azinam will retain a 20 per cent participating interest and Ricocure (Pty) Ltd retains a 60 per cent participating interest.
Block 3B/4B is located in the Orange Basin offshore South Africa and covers an area of 17,581 sq km in water depths ranging from 300 to 2,500 m. The Block is located along-trend of an emerging Mid-Cretaceous oil play where operators are planning to drill several major exploratory wells that have the potential to be play-openers for a petroleum province.
Partners have identified an inventory of leads and prospects from an existing 10,020 sq km 3D survey that covers most of the Block. During the Initial Period of three years, Africa Oil and its partners are to carry out a regional subsurface review of existing seismic, geological and engineering data, and may also include some select reprocessing of the existing 3D data, which may lead to the identification of exploration prospects and recommendations for subsequent renewal periods of the Block.
Africa Oil has also announced that it will participate in a US$40mn capital raising by Impact Oil & Gas Limited, the privately-owned, African-focused exploration company on or about 14 February 2020. The company will subscribe for approximately 45mn ordinary shares at an issue price of 20 pence per ordinary share, for an investment of approximately US$12mn.
Impact expects to use the proceeds to fund its interest in potentially high impact 2020 drilling campaigns. These include drilling the Venus-1 exploration well on Block 2913B offshore Namibia, and Luiperd-1 well on Block 11B/12B offshore South Africa. Venus-1, which is partially carried by the operator, Total, is expected to spud during the first half of 2020. Luiperd-1 well is the second exploration well on Block 11B/12B following the Brulpadda discovery in 2019 and is also expected to spud during the first half of 2020.
Keith Hill, Africa Oil’s president and CEO, commented, “Africa Oil has a significant footprint in several emerging plays extending from South Africa to Namibia, where both Total and Shell plan to drill potential play-openers in 2020 and at the same time are increasing their positions in other blocks adjacent to Block 3B/4B. From existing 3D seismic surveys, we have identified a number of similar prospects to those that the majors are targeting. In the near term, we are now looking forward to the drilling of Venus-1 and Luiperd-1 exploration wells that in case of exploration success, can have significant upside for our shareholders,
