Windhoek, Namibia – Monday, June 4, 2018:
Azinam Limited (“Azinam”), the Seacrest Capital Group backed explorer focused on offshore Namibia, is pleased to announce that the Ocean Rig Poseidon sixth generation deep water drillship has been contracted by the licence partnership to drill one firm and one optional well, with the first well targeting Prospect S, located in Petroleum Exploration Licence (“PEL”) 71, offshore Namibia.
The well has been strategically designed to test multiple zones including Aptian, Albian and Cenomanian-Turonian targets and is expected to spud in Q4 2018.
Prospect S has a gross mean prospective resource of 459mmbls and is one of five dip-closed structural traps in close proximity to each other in an Upper Cretaceous turbidite clastic fairway, with a combined total of 1,758mmbls of gross mean prospective resources. In addition, there are a further two higher risk stratigraphic traps in PEL 71 with a combined total of 885mmbls of gross mean prospective resources, which would be de-risked through the improved calibration of 6,100 km2 of 3D seismic data using the results from the Prospect S well.
As previously announced, Azinam intends to drill multiple exploration wells offshore Namibia in the next 24 months. The company holds one of the largest acreage positions offshore Namibia, second only to NAMCOR the national oil company. Azinam is ideally placed to capitalise on success within the Walvis basin as its working interests range from 20-42.5% in six licences across the majority of the basin. These licences hold over 9 billion barrels of prospective resources and are strategically positioned to allow access to the multiple play types within the basin. Furthermore, Azinam holds an extensive proprietary seismic database comprising nine individual surveys, three 2D surveys and six 3D modern broadband seismic data surveys which cover more than 13,000km1.
Azinam Managing Director, David Sturt, commented:
“We are very excited by this well, the first in our drilling program. Prospect S is located in PEL 71 which extends over 16,000km² and if successful it will unlock significant value as we have a considerable stable of analogous drill ready prospects within this Licence and across our licence portfolio (62,000km2).
The primary objective of the well is to test Cenomanian-Turonian age clastics within a structural trap with this same reservoir already proven by the Murombe well drilled to the north by HRT in 2013. Additionally, it will test deeper secondary objectives within the Albian and Aptian formations.
Our modern broadband 3D seismic database has been crucial in enabling us to map these basin floor fan complexes, which historically have been hard to identify from poorer quality datasets. We look forward to unlocking the potential of this basin with our partners, Chariot Oil & Gas, NAMCOR and Ignitus Oil & Gas.”
Azinam Chairman, Erik Tiller, commented:
“Contracting the Ocean Rig Poseidon to drill Prospect S in October is a major step forward in our next phase of exploration offshore Namibia. As recently announced, we are in the advanced stages of planning multiple exploration wells in the coming 24 months and this well marks the first in the campaign.
I look forward to providing further updates on our progress in Namibia, as we anticipate being very active during this phase of exploration in the region, with our extensive licence holding coupled with a unique seismic dataset position ensuring Azinam will benefit from any exploration success across the Walvis Basin.
NAMCOR and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) continue to be highly supportive of the efforts of oil companies to open up this new petroleum province and I hope that we can repay this support with exploration success in the coming months.”
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