Multinational company Essel Group Middle East (EGME) has received formal approval from the government of Kenya for its $100-million investment participation in Canadian publicly traded oil and gas company Simba Energy’s assets in Kenya.
The company in June signed an agreement to potentially earn up to a 60% participating interest in Simba’s portfolio of African oil and gas exploration projects.
The two companies had now started planning and scheduling two-dimensional (2D) seismic work in support of finalising locations to drill initial exploration wells at Simba’s 7 801.72 km2 Block 2A exploration licence, in Kenya’s Mandera basin, in 2016.
This was expected to confirm depths and support the volume estimates necessary for a revised resource estimate and risk category for the concession’s prospects and other secondary targeted structures.
“With the backing of the Kenyan government, we now begin our joint venture investment into Block 2A and look forward to completing the 2D seismic as soon as possible. We believe this next phase of work will yield excellent upside potential for drilling exploration at a number of high-quality prospects and targets in Kenya,” EGME MD Gagan Goel said.