Africa Oil Corp has signed a contract with Sakson Drilling and Oil Services to provide a rig to drill the first exploration wells in Puntland, Somalia, for more than 20 years.
Spudding of the first well in Dharoor is expected to commence during the fourth quarter of this year.
Drilling locations have been selected over two prospects in the Dharoor and Nugaal valleys covering nearly 36,000 square kilometres. Each prospect is targeting a gross best estimate oil-in-place of approximately 900 million barrels.
The first prospect, Shabeel-1, is targeting more than 300 million recoverable barrels of oil.
Australia-based Red Emperor, Africa Oil Corp’s joint venture partner, holds a 20 per cent working interest in the two licences.
Commenting, Red Emperor's executive director Greg Bandy said: "We are delighted that our JV partner has signed a drilling rig contract and associated contracts and we look forward to drilling the first exploration wells in Puntland in over 20 years."
Red Emperor Resources is a natural resources exploration company with interests in the frontier state of Puntland, Somalia, the Republic of Georgia and Western Australia.
