Paragon Offshore plc (fka PGNPQ)

[SPARK]

Tanzania: PanAfrican Energy - We Can Produce More Gas

Songo Songo — PanAfrican Energy Tanzania is ready to commission a new well plus three others, two of which had been suspended, significantly increasing their ability to produce natural gas.

It has taken Pan African Energy 178 days to repair three wells and drilling a new one.

PanAfrican Energy operational engineer Onestus Mujemula told The Citizen here that the wells that were under the project included offshore wells SS 5 and SS9 which were suspended and the completion of SS7.

He added that the project also included the drilling of a new offshore well SS12 which will have a daily production capacity of 35 million cubic feet.

"All the workovers and the new well were completed with a gas tight premium production casing and the production strings were completed with gas tight tread chrome tubing," he said.

The work was completed without any accidents on site, no spills and there was no lost time from the date the jack-up rig started work. The completion of the offshore capital programme on February 10 will bring the total number of functioning wells to eight from the current five.

According to PanAfrican Energy officials, this is set to address the operational requirements to ensure the continued provision of gas volumes to the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation.

"When the current repair and drilling is over we expect the daily gas volumes to rise from the pre-campaign workovers and drilling of 85 million to nearly 180 million cubic feet."

According to Mujemula, the work was done in 178 days and is scheduled to be delivered on time, cutting down the budgeted costs to 75 per cent.

"Initially we had budgeted that the drilling and workover on all the four wells cost some $91 million but these costs have been cut down to $67.5 million," said Mujemula.

In 2014 PanAfrican Energy entered into a drilling contract with Paragon Offshore Plc for the use of its mobile offshore jack-up rig as well as the provision of the associated services.