9 August 2008
Nairobi — Canadian firm Vangold Resou-rces Ltd has reported that it has signed a service agreement with New Resolution Geophysics, a South African company, to conduct a new survey for gas in the Kivu Graben of Rwanda.
The South African company will be conducting what is referred to as an "airborne gravity and aeromagnetic survey."
According to Vangold geophycist Danson Mburu, the survey will be flown over Vangold's 1,631 sq km oil and gas concession area.
The Kivu Graben is located south of the Albertine Graben where Tullow and Heritage Oil have made major oil discoveries.
Both grabens occupy the northern part of the East African Rift System. Vangold's exploration geologist, Francis Karanja, told The East African, "The depths of sediments in the individual basins will also be defined.
The survey is scheduled to commence upon receipt of regulatory approval and the acquisition of required permits.
Preliminary data products will be available to Vangold's technical representatives during the data acquisition phase and final compiled survey products will be available within three weeks of the survey completion."
Joseph Katarebe, Vangold's Rwanda country manager, said the total cost of the survey is estimated to be approximately $275,000.
In April this year, Vangold reported that the results of a recent study of satellite imagery of Lake Kivu indicated that there are 57 slicks in Lake Kivu.
Mr Mburu reported that a recent field trip resulted in the identification of gas seeps over three of the unassigned oil slick sites.
The gas seeps occur in shallow Kivu waters of less than 100 metres depth of water, near fault zones and basin margins.
Other reported seeps in Lake Kivu has led to more gas seeps being identified along the shallower eastern shoreline.
This is consistent with core samples analysed near Bukavu that show deposits in the lake bottom sediments that are important hydrocarbon source rocks.
Studies have estimated the quantity of methane gas in that lake at around 55 billion cubic metres. The gas is concentrated in the main basin of Lake Kivu below the 260 metre water depth mark.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
