Rank: Elder Joined: 2/26/2012 Posts: 15,980
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Africas Latest Gusher Quote:Notice the multiple “afters” in those two sentences. We told you before Africa Oil drilled its first well — not after its third.[b](This one could yield 120 million barrels./b]) In other news Quote:AFRICA OIL CORP - KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE SITE VISIT TO KENYA
· Africa Oil is hosting an analyst and investor site visit to Kenya this week. We continue to see Africa Oil as one of the highest impact exploration stories in European E&P. We highlight our key takeaways from the site visit below:
· Focus on de-risking the Lokichar Sub-Basin - Africa Oil and Tullow are currently drilling the Twiga South prospect, which lies on trend with the Ngamia discovery. Management did not give an interim update on the well preferring to wait until drilling operations are complete towards the end of October. A discovery at Twiga South would further de-risk the Lokichar sub-basin, which is of a similar size to the Albert Graben in Uganda that contains c. 2bn bbls of oil.
· Active drilling programme over the next 18 months - Africa Oil plans to drill between 10-12 wells over the next 18 months with 3 rigs operating across their acreage position in Kenya/Ethiopia. However, Tullow could move rigs in from Uganda if there is further exploration success. In addition to the Lokichar sub-basin campaign, Africa Oil plans to target the Cretaceous rift in Block 10A at Paipai (currently drilling) and the extension of the Tertiary rift in South Omo (December spud). We include SEK72/share risked for this 18-month drilling campaign in our base case NAV of SEK95/share, but unrisked believe it could be worth up to SEK181/share.
· Upside potential at Ngamia - The recent Gaffney Cline independent resource report estimated the Ngamia discovery at 188m bbls (split between contingent resources of 51m boe and prospective resources of 137m boe), broadly in line with our risked estimate of 200m bbls in our base case NAV of SEK 95/share. With only 1 well drilled into the Ngamia structure, further appraisal activity is needed to confirm the full potential of the discovery. However, if the 100m of net pay discovered in the upper Lokhone reservoir section at Ngamia-1 extends across the structure, management believes the prospective resource estimate of 137m boe could double to 274m boe. We include SEK20/share risked for Ngamia in our base case NAV of SEK95/share, but unrisked think it could be worth up to SEK27/share.
· Wide range on resources needed to underpin a commercial development - Africa Oil estimates a resource range of 400-500m bbls is required to underpin a stand-alone development project (Tullow has suggested 300-500m bbls). It remains early days, but one of the key uncertainties remains the flow rates that can be achieved from the Lokichar sub-basin. If a discovery is made at Twiga South, we would expect this well to be tested with drilling equipment now on site and will hopefully provide more certainty on well productivity. In addition, the commercial threshold would be greatly reduced towards 100m bbls (according to Africa Oil) if a Kenyan oil project was developed in conjunction with Tullow's Ugandan development (which requires an export pipeline) or as part of a regional pipeline infrastructure project (for example, LAPSSET).
Only time will tell "There are only two emotions in the market, hope & fear. The problem is you hope when you should fear & fear when you should hope: - Jesse Livermore .
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