Anglo African Oil & Gas plc, an independent oil and gas developer, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a rig option agreement with Société de Forage Pétroliers for the provision of a rig to carry out drilling operations on well TLP-103C-ST at the Tilapia field (“Tilapia”), in which the Company has a 56 per cent interest.
The Rig Agreement gives AAOG the right to contract the rig for TLP-103C-ST and a further four wells at our call.
The SFP #1 Rig (the “Rig”) is the subject of contractual commitments to a super-major which will expire on 30 December 2019. SFP may extend such contractual commitments until (but not beyond) 30 March 2020 and will notify AAOG on or before 30 November 2019 as to whether its contractual commitments have been extended.
Drilling operations at TLP-103C-ST could therefore commence either in Q1 or Q2/2020, dependent on the Rig’s current commitments. AAOG will update the market once there is more certainty on timing.
The operational plan is to re-enter the existing TLP-103C well and drill the new sidetrack just below the Mengo formation to test the Upper Djeno and explore the Middle Djeno formations. The objective is to determine whether the Djeno can be brought into production from either horizon.
Drilling activity is never without risk. However, the Directors believe that the sidetrack operations have an attractive risk/reward profile. TLP-103C has already proven the geological model and confirmed the presence of the Djeno at Tilapia. The fallback plan is to produce TLP-103C from the Mengo formation.
James Berwick, CEO said “We are very pleased to have entered into the Rig Agreement and look forward to commencing operations at TLP-103C-ST as soon as the Rig becomes available. The Rig is the most suitable rig available in country and will come to TLP-103C-ST directly from drilling operations for a super-major. The Board of AAOG appreciate that drilling operations will commence later than we had hoped but, following the problems encountered in drilling TLP-103C, it was important that we found the right rig for this drilling campaign to avoid any similar issues.”
