London, UK | – BG Group Plc and its partners discovered natural gas at a well off Tanzania, adding reserves for a planned export plant in the East African country.
The Kamba-1 well in Tanzania’s block 4 found 1.03 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to a statement from Ophir Energy Plc, which holds a 20 percent interest in the block. That’s probably enough to justify a third production unit at a proposed gas-export plant, it said.
BG, the U.K.’s third-largest oil and gas producer, plans to build a plant in Tanzania to export liquefied natural gas to Asia. The government is assessing where the plant should be located, while legislation to ensure gas contributes more to the economy is due to be presented to parliament by November.
The Kamba discovery means there’s enough gas in block 4 to justify a third 5 million ton-a-year LNG plant for the project, Ophir CEO Nick Cooper said in the statement.
Ophir shares rose as much as 3.1 percent to 227.7 pence in London and traded at 225.2 percent at 9:50 a.m. local time.
The well is the joint venture’s sixteenth consecutive discovery in the area and is the final project in its current drilling campaign. It increases London-based Ophir’s estimate of recoverable resources across its three blocks in Tanzania to 17.1 trillion cubic feet, the company said.
The “increase in gas resource across Ophir’s Tanzania assets suggests drilling activity continues to support future development plans,” analysts at Deutsche Bank AG, which rates the company at hold, said in a note. “Aside from the modest uplift, higher volumes on Block 4 also increase confidence that enough feedstock exists to supply an LNG train.”
Bloomberg.
