Scirocco reports progress at its Tanzania investments

The AIM-traded firm said the seismic acquisition programme and preparations for the drilling of the Chikumbi-1 (CH-1) well were underway, under the direction of operator ARA Petroleum Tanzania (APT).

Alongside the ongoing seismic operations, APT had further advanced the well planning for the CH-1 well with all long-lead contracts now executed.

Scirocco said APT had a target spud date for CH-1 in November.

As it had previously announced, APT's revised mapping and internal management estimates suggested a risked prospective gas in place for the Ntorya accumulation of a mean, gross 3,024 billion cubic feet in multiple lobes to be tested, and a prospective, risked recoverable gas resource of 1,990 billion cubic feet.

That was “considerably in excess” of the joint venture's carried resource assessment, Scirocco noted, presenting “significant” upside opportunities in the well.

At Kiliwani North, where Scirocco has an 8.39% non-operated working interest, the company noted that operator Aminex had announced that any future drilling was contingent on an improved seismic resolution of the prospective target structures.

Additionally, the operator had agreed with Pan African Energy Tanzania (PAET) to use its high-resolution 3D seismic campaign, targeting a mid-year start, to receive about 12.5 square kilometres of “valuable” new high-resolution 3D coverage over Kiliwani North, at no cost to the joint venture.

PAET would be acquiring high-resolution 3D seismic over the adjacent producing Songo Songo field, and the Kiliwani North joint venture would allow PAET to partially overlap the area to enable full-fold processing of the new 3D dataset up to the Songo Songo and Kiliwani North boundary.

Scirocco said the coverage, which represented over 40% of the critical area of the licence, would enable the operator to link the new high-resolution 3D data to its existing 2D seismic legacy data, which currently covered Kiliwani North with an “irregular” seismic grid.

That, it said, should “significantly improve” both fault resolution and reservoir horizon mapping - both considered “essential” to understand the compartmentalised nature of the reservoir.

“The operational progress made by both operators on our Tanzania oil and gas asset represents long awaited activity on both blocks which are significant value catalysts for Scirocco shareholders,” said chief executive officer Tom Reynolds.

“We are excited about the schedule of work activity in 2022 and beyond in Tanzania and look forward to being able to update the market further as to the progress of ongoing operations.”

At 1540 BST, shares in Scirocco Energy were down 4.76% at 0.5p.