Nigerian workers on an oil rig. Afren focuses on oil exploration in the country. Photo: Eye Ubiquitous / Alamy
Lagos – West Africa-focused Lekoil reported Friday that it has raised $100 million that it plans to use to fund the completion of drilling and testing of the Ogo-1 well and sidetrack as well as the future development of its OML 113 license in Nigeria.
Lekoil announced Thursday that the Ogo-1 sidetrack well, which reached its total measured depth of 17,987 feet on October 6, has encountered hydrocarbon intervals in the same Turonian, Cenomanian and Albian reservoirs that were successfully drilled and logged at the Ogo-1 well during the summer.
Results from the sidetrack so far indicate that a 280-foot vertical thickness gross hydrocarbon interval exists within the well. The partners in the license – which include Afren and Optimum Petroleum Development – believe that wireline data and testing of the sidetrack is necessary to define the extent of the hydrocarbon intervals. The nearby OML 113 license – in which Lekoil agreed to buy a 6.5-percent participating interest in September – contains the Aje gas and condensate field, which is located about 15 miles offshore Nigeria in water depths of around 3,000 feet.
The field is estimated to have un-risked 2C contingent resources of 25.3 million barrels of oil equivalent attributable to it. Lekoil CEO Olalekan Akinyanmi commented in a company statement: “This equity raise reflects Lekoil’s success in implementing the strategy, set out at the time of our IPO in May this year, to build a business focused initially on West Africa and diversified in terms of exploration, appraisal and near term production
