Ocean Rig Drillship to Drill for Chariot Offshore Namibia

Chariot Oil & Gas Limited, the Africa focused independent oil and gas exploration company, has, together with its partner Enigma Oil & Gas (Pty) Limited, reached an agreement with Ocean Rig UDW Inc. to use the Ocean Rig Poseidon drillship for drilling of the Kabeljou (2714/6-1) well on the Nimrod prospect, offshore Namibia.

The drillship is expected to arrive on location in July 2012, after its current contract expires. The drilling operations will commence shortly after the arrival.

The Nimrod prospect is located in the Orange Basin in Southern Block 2714A where Chariot has a 25% equity interest. The Kabeljou well is expected to take approximately 2 months to drill. The drilling location is 77 km offshore Namibia in 360 metres of water with an estimated total drilling depth of 3,100 metres true vertical depth subsea (“TVDss”).

This is the second well to be drilled in Chariot’s 4 to 5 exploration well programme offshore Namibia.

Paul Welch, CEO of Chariot, commented:

“We are very pleased to be advancing with our drilling programme and eagerly anticipate the spud of the Kabeljou well with our partners. Nimrod is one of the biggest prospects due to be drilled worldwide this year and we look forward to being able to update the market with further news on this hugely significant well in due course.”

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Chariot Spuds Tapir South Prospect Offshore Namibia

by  Chariot O&G Ltd.

Press Release

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Chariot Oil & Gas Limited announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Enigma Oil & Gas Exploration (Pty) Limited, has commenced drilling the first well, 1811/5-1, of its 4 to 5 well drilling program offshore Namibia. Drilling operations began this morning on the Tapir South prospect using the Maersk Deliverer (UDW semisub) drilling rig, with Chariot as Operator.

The prospect has a 25 percent Chance of Success and a mean un-risked prospective resource potential of 604 million barrels of oil. In the event of success, the results of this well will significantly increase the Chance of Success on certain of the Company’s other prospects within the Tapir Trend.

Tapir South (1811/5-1) will be only the second well ever to be drilled in the Namibe Basin. It is located 49.7 miles (80 kilometers) offshore Namibia in the Company’s northern block 1811A, in which Chariot has a 100 percent equity interest. The well is being drilled to an estimated total vertical depth subsea of 16,732 feet (5,100 meters) and, as announced following the Placing of March 20, 2012, this will now include extended drilling time to ensure that one of the deeper identified targets is drilled and fully evaluated. This deeper target is believed to be a carbonate section, age equivalent to the reservoir in recent sub-salt discoveries in the on-trend Kwanza basin offshore Angola. The drilling and logging operations are expected to take approximately 70 days and a further announcement will be made when the well results are known.

The Tapir South prospect is part of the Tapir Trend where three prospects have been identified on a large ridge formed by a rotated fault block containing the potential carbonate target, draped by deep marine sediments with turbidite sandstone levels forming a stack of overlying targets. Tapir South is the southernmost of three culminations on the ridge and forms a focal point for charge migration from an adjacent basin in which excellent oil prone source rocks are believed to be present and currently generating oil.

The second well to be drilled in the Chariot exploration program, Kabeljou (2714/6-1), targeting the Nimrod prospect is now likely to spud earlier than previously reported. The Operator has informed Chariot that it now expects to secure a drilling unit in 3Q 2012.

“We are very pleased to announce the spud of our Tapir South well in the northern license area which marks that start of a 4-5 well drill program running through to the end of 2013. The results of this first well will be invaluable to furthering our knowledge and understanding of the Namibe basin. Owing to the additional funding raised last month we can now fully explore the deeper targets within the prospect and we look forward to updating the market with the well results in due course,” commented CEO Paul Welch.

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Namibia: Spectrum Starts Seismic Survey in Luderitz Basin

Spectrum, in partnership with the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR), has commenced a new project in the Luderitz basin following the successful completion of an extended 2D Multi-Client seismic survey covering the deep water Orange Basin, offshore Namibia.

The Orange Basin program acquisition has been completed with additional lines now extending the program to over 8,000 km of long offset data. The vessel has now commenced a new regional program in the Luderitz Basin consisting of 4,400 km plus a potential infill of 1,200 km.

Seabird Exploration is providing the acquisition services through their Northern Explorer vessel which performed exceptionally well during January and February. Nearly 4,000 km of high quality data was acquired in February and the extended survey was completed ahead of schedule. Further prefunding has enabled Spectrum to add additional lines to the Orange Basin program and to commence the new Luderitz Basin survey.

There is considerable attention in the area at this time. The new survey is located immediately between the recently announced BP farm-in to the Serica 2513 A&B blocks and the potential in the Petrobras/BP/Chariot 2714A block. Very little seismic data is available over these blocks  and Spectrum’s survey will provide both Operators and potential Partners with a good quality regional dataset to evaluate this almost unexplored area.

The Orange Basin survey is now in processing with final deliverables expected to be available in June 2012. The Luderitz basin survey will be available in August.

Over 35,000 km of high-quality 2D multi-client data is now available through Spectrum from offshore Namibia in ten individual surveys. Each survey has been designed to target key plays within the offshore area. The data vintages range from the 1989 regional survey, through to detailed block specific surveys including the 2003 survey acquired around the Ondjou prospect in the northern Walvis Basin. There is also a comprehensive suite of surveys around the Kudu field, as well as covering the Orange and Luderitz Basins.

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Namibia: BP Joins Serica in Exploration Offshore Namibia

Serica Energy plc announces that, subject to the consent of the Ministry of Mines and Energy in Namibia, BP will be joining Serica in the exploration of Licence 0047 offshore Namibia by farming-in to Serica’s interest.

The Licence, comprising Blocks 2512A, 2513A, 2513B and 2612A (part), was recently awarded to Serica Energy Namibia B.V. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Serica) and covers an area of approximately 17,400 square kilometres in the deep water central Luderitz Basin. Serica currently has an 85% interest in the blocks. Its partners are the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Pty) Limited (“NAMCOR”) (10%) and Indigenous Energy (Pty) Limited (“IEPL”) (5%). Both NAMCOR’s and IEPL’s interests are carried by Serica for prescribed work programmes.

Under the transaction, BP will pay to Serica a sum covering Serica’s past costs and earn a 30% interest in the Licence by meeting the full cost of an extensive 3D seismic survey. As a result of the farm-out, Serica’s interest in the Licence following completion of the seismic survey will be 55%. Serica has also announced today that it has signed a contract with Polarcus Seismic Limited to acquire up to 4,150 square kilometres of 3D seismic across the Licence .

The deep water geological basins offshore Namibia, including the Luderitz Basin, are at the early frontier stage of exploration. Although the presence of very large structures have been shown to exist from seismic surveys, very few wells have been drilled in the deeper water Namibian basins to date and the full hydrocarbon potential of the area has not yet been fully tested. Water depths in Serica’s Luderitz Basin blocks range from 300 to 3,000 metres. Drilling in these depths of water, whilst becoming more commonplace in the industry, requires sophisticated drilling techniques and equipment and is very costly.

Serica has therefore granted an option for BP to increase its interest in the Licence by meeting the full cost of drilling and testing an exploration well to the Barremian level before the end of the first four year exploration period. In the event that this option is exercised, Serica’s interest in the Licence will be 17.5% carried through the first well, which will have very considerable value if the exploration drilling is successful.

Serica will continue to be the operator of the Licence during the initial seismic period with BP taking over as operator if it exercises its option to drill and test a well.

Tony Craven Walker, Serica’s Chairman and Interim Chief Executive said:

“Serica’s licence interests in the emerging Atlantic margin basins offshore Ireland, Morocco and Namibia are attracting growing industry interest. In Namibia we recognise the benefits of having a partner who brings technical and development expertise to the group to  complement Serica’s early stage exploration capability.

We are therefore very pleased that BP has decided to join Serica and its partners in the exploration of the Luderitz Basin blocks. The blocks, located in the centre of the largely unexplored Luderitz Basin, cover a very large area and contain multiple play types with considerable  potential. We were awarded the blocks only two months ago and, with BP now participating in the exploration effort, we are able to make a very fast start to what is likely to be a considerable and potentially very rewarding exploration programme.”

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