MAJOR GAS DISCOVERY IN ROVUMA BASIN

The Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has announced a major new discovery of natural gas in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. “The discovery well encountered a total of more than 550 net feet of natural gas pay in multiple high-quality Oligocene and Eocene sands”, according to an Anadarko press release.The discovery at the Lagosta field is close to the company’s two other gas finds at Barquentine and Windjammer. Gas was discovered at Windjammer in February and at Barquentine in October.According to Anadarko’s Vice-President for Worldwide Exploration, Bob Daniels, the discovery “significantly expands this emerging world-class natural gas province”.Enough gas has been found to develop a project to liquefy the gas for export. Daniels stated that “although additional appraisal drilling will be required, we believe the three discoveries announced to date already exceed the resource size threshold necessary to support an LNG (liquefied natural gas) development, and we have assigned an integrated project team to begin advancing commercialization options. Given the global LNG trade and its indexing to the global crude market, this resource can provide tremendous economic value for the people of Mozambique, the government and the partnership”.Anadarko will soon move on to drilling for more hydrocarbons 17 miles to the south at a fourth well, Tubarao.First, however, Anadarko plans to drill deeper at Lagosta. So far, the well has been drilled to a depth of 13,850 feet in water that is 5,080 feet deep. The company intends to drill to a total depth of 15,900 feet.Anadarko is the operator of Offshore Area 1 and holds a 36.5 per cent share of the fields. Its co-owners are Mitsui of Japan (20 per cent), BPRL Ventures and Videocon (both of India, with 10 per cent each) and Cove Energy of Britain (8.5 per cent). The Mozambican government is represented by Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos which holds a 15 per cent interest in the fields.Following the announcement Cove Energy saw its London share price jump by 12 per cent.