Australia’s Woodside Petroleum will exit the Lake Tanganyika South block it farmed into last July, according to partner Beach Energy.
Beach Energy made the announcement on 27 May that Woodside decided not to enter the next phase of exploration on the production sharing agreement (PSA).
Following Woodside’s departure, Beach Energy said the company preserved its right to proceed into the next exploration period under the PSA and has notified the Tanzanian regulators. Moving forward, Beach Energy says it will retain 100% of the PSA and become operator of the area. Beach entered into a PSA with Tanzania’s government for the block in 2010.
According to its quarterly report released in April, Beach updated progress on the block as follows, saying: “Processing and interpretation of data from the 2D seismic survey in the prospective East African Rift continued during the quarter, with completion of data processing and interpretation expected by the end of fiscal year 2015. Incorporating 1333 line-km of marine survey and 107 line-km of marine-land transition survey, the seismic surveys were programmed to verify drilling options identified from aeromagnetic and gravity surveys flown in 2010, and the 2080 line-km of 2D seismic acquired in August 2012. Work continues to identify drilling solutions, both onshore and offshore.”
Woodside had announced last July that it farmed into 70% of Beach’s 100% interest in the Lake Tanganyika South block and associated PSA. In doing so, Woodside was to reimburse its share of back costs incurred by Beach Tanzania; fund another round of seismic operations over the next 12 months; and contribute to Beach’s share of costs associated with an initial exploration well (subject to an agreed cap), should it elect to proceed with the program beyond the seismic operations, Beach said at the time of the agreement.
At the time of the farm-in, Woodside CEO Peter Coleman then-referred to the acreage as an “exciting and underexplored oil-prone frontier basin.”
Lake Tanganyika borders Tanzania to the east, the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, Burundi to the north, and Zambia to the south. It is the longest freshwater lake at 660km long, and it’s the second deepest at 1436m. The total area of Tanganyika measures 32,900sq km.
Image: Map of Lake Tanganyika block from Woodside Petroleum.
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