27 February 2012, Sweetcrude, HOUSTON – UK company, Aminex, has recorded a gas discovery in the Ntorya-1 exploration well in the Ruvuma basin, onshore Tanzania.
The company said the well encountered strong gas in a good quality Cretaceous reservoir sand at a depth of 2660 metres and the open hole was logged over the zone to a depth of 2750 metres.
Its evaluation of the electric logs confirmed the presence of gas over a gross sand interval of 25 metres, from 2660 to 2685 metres, with a three metre net gas bearing pay zone at the top of the interval with porosities of 20% and a 16.5 metre thick lower sandstone interval with further possible gas pay.
The company added the presence of reservoire hydrocarbons in the Cretaceous sands in Ntorya-1 opened up the potential for additional prospectivity in the thick Mesozoic sandstones encountered in the Likonde-1 well, about 14 kilometres to the north.
Aminex chief executive officer, Stuard Detmer, said: “Following recent high-profile exploration successes in the offshore Ruvuma basin of Tanzania and Mozambique, the Ntorya-1 well has established for the first time the presence of reservoire hydrocarbons onshore.
“Given current plans to develop major gas infrastructure on the coast just 25 kilometres away, this has the potential for commercial development and opens new possibilities in the under-explored onshore regions of our Ruvuma Block PSA.”
Aminex said it intended to deepen the well a further 250 metres to investigate “a prominent seismic event” at a depth of about 3000 metres.
