Afren Plc (fka AFRNF)

[Wildbilly]

Bloomberg 1/19/2011 5:43 a:m

Afren Says Okoro Find in Nigeria Can Support Own Oil Project


Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Osman Shahenshah, chief executive officer at Afren Plc, talks about the oil explorer's discovery at the Okoro prospect in Nigeria.
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Afren Plc (AFR), the U.K. explorer focused on Africa and Iraqi Kurdistan, said the latest Okoro East oil discovery is large enough to be developed as a separate project, boosting resources in Nigeria.

Afren discovered 549 feet (167 meters) of so-called net oil pay in the well and penetrated “the previously unexplored deeper zones” in the Okoro field, the company said Jan. 17. The main Okoro field is producing about 20,000 barrels of oil a day, said Afren Chief Executive Officer Osman Shahenshah.

“This discovery means that potentially there is another Okoro field and beyond,” Shahenshah said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, declining to give details of the find’s potential reserves. “We will be testing over the next three or four weeks, but clearly it’s large enough there as a project on its own.”

Afren, based in London, has been targeting about 25 million barrels of oil equivalent resources in Okoro East, according to a November presentation posted on its website. The Okoro Setu field held 19.5 million barrels of oil reserves as of Dec. 31, 2010, according to the website.

Afren shares rose to a five-month high after the Okoro East discovery announcement. The shares rose 0.8 percent to 127 pence in London trading at 10:42 a.m. local time.

The tests “will give us an idea of pressures, flow rates, crude quality and so forth,” Shahenshah said. “Okoro has been a great field, it’s been producing for 40 years now ahead of expectations always.”

Amni International Petroleum Development Co is Afren’s partner in the Okoro project. The Okoro field holds 21.4 million barrels of oil equivalent reserves, according to Amni’s website.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin and Mark Barton in London at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at [e-mail]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-19/afren-says-okoro-find-in-nigeria-can-support-own-oil-project-1-.html