Kampala — TWO appraisal wells in Buliisa have confirmed presence of massive oil reserves, hastening steps towards early petroleum production.

The review was done on the Kasamene-3 and Kasamene-3A wells in the Butiaba region of Block-2. It also discovered more oil at the Wahrindi North fault block. The Kasamene oil field is where Tullow Oil, the firm that is exploring for oil and gas in Uganda, wants to locate the early oil production scheme.

"These exploratory appraisal results have shown the potential in this area. "This takes us a significant step towards the first oil production in Uganda at the Kasamene field next year," exploration director, Angus McCoss, said. He added that Tullow was working closely with the Government on ways of accelerating the exploration and appraisal activities in the region.

"We also look forward to commencing a multi-well programme with a second rig in Block 1 next month," he said. According to a statement from Tullow, the Kasamene-3 well is 1,109 deep and over 2km from the Kasamene-1 discovery well. The results of logging confirmed 10 metres of oil pay within a 35-metre thick reservoir section of the Kasamene field.

Pressure data confirmed this pay to be in communication with the up-dip Kasamene-1 well, extending the column height of these reservoirs to over 100 metres. High quality reservoirs, 25 metres thick, were encountered as projected below the oil-water contact. "This outcome proves the viability of this location as a future water injection point to support oil production," Tullow said.

A second well, to explore the Wahrindi North fault block, was also drilled through the top-hole section of Kasamene-3. Kasamene-3A, was drilled to about 988 metres deep, into a separate fault compartment, about 300 metres Kasameme-3. The well encountered over 15 metres of oil pay.

The rig will now move to the Kaiso-Tonya area to drill the Nzizi-3 appraisal well to support the accelerated Nzizi gas development project. Tullow has interests in three licences in the Lake Albert Rift Basin in Uganda. It is the sole owner and operator of Block 2.

The firm also has a 50% stake in Blocks 1 and 3A, operated by Heritage Oil, which has 50%.