Operations
Namibia project
Transfer of operatorship
On 20th September 2007 the Minister of Mines and Energy of the Republic of Namibia approved the farmout of an 85% interest in Tower's Licence to Arcadia Petroleum Limited (Arcadia). The Minister also approved the transfer of the Operatorship of the Licence to Arcadia. Under the terms of the farmout, Arcadia committed to fully fund a programme of activity in four parts which includes:
- shooting and interpreting the recently completed 2-Dimensional seismic commitment programme
- recording and interpreting an additional 2-Dimensional seismic programme
- an exploration commitment well
- a contingent second well which might be an appraisal well or a second exploration well
Arcadia has the option to withdraw from its commitment at the end of each of these four stages of operation or to assign all or part of its interest to a third party agreeing to meet the funding commitment. In the case of withdrawal or failure to assign, the full 85% interest will revert to Neptune. Arcadia also reimbursed 85% of certain historic costs to Tower.
A 735km 2-D seismic survey was completed in the third quarter of 2007. The prime area of focus was the prospective north west of the Licence. Comprehensive processing and interpretation of the 2-D seismic confirmed that the three giant prospects previously identified (Alpha, Gamma and Delta) are viable exploration targets, having apparent four-way structural closure and strong hydrocarbon indications. Geological modelling indicated three potentially continuous reservoir sands over these large structures, at Palaeocene, Maastrichtian and Campanian horizons, which can be correlated with high quality sands encountered in the two wells drilled on the Licence.
The Operator followed up on this encouraging interpretation by purchasing about 2400 kms of available 2-D seismic data from a variety of seismic contractors to broaden the coverage of the AVO interpretation over all prospects. Reprocessing and interpretation of this data confirmed the prospectivity previously identified but has also confirmed that the target reservoirs could have complex geometry (typical of large turbidite fan deposits). The Delta prospect was shown to have the greatest likelihood of reservoir continuity and is now the target prospect for the first well. Continued
