Ophir Energy, the oil and gas exploration company operating in Africa announced positive results for its three-well appraisal programs on the Jodari field, Block 1 in Tanzania.
The company, in joint venture with BG Group, holds 40% of Blocks 1, 3 and 4 and the BG Group operates with 60%.
According to Ophir, the wells showed consistent, high reservoir of quality natural gas across the Jodari field and confirmed the estimate of 3.4 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ophir Mr Nick Cooper stated that :”The appraisal program has significantly de-risked the Jodari field underlining its potential to anchor Tanzania’s first multi-train LNG development.”
The viability of high-angle drilling was also confirmed, which leads to lower developing costs.
The Ophir-BG joint venture is now due to appraise the Mzia discovery and return to Jodari-1 to conduct Tanzania’s first flow test.
According to Mr Cooper thereafter the joint venture expects to return to high impact exploration drilling in Block 1 during Q1 2013.
Official estimates of overall recoverable natural gas reserves in Tanzania were recently raised from 28.74 trillion cubic feet (tcf) to 33 following latest large offshore discoveries.