Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Ltd said the rig that will drill a highly anticipated well offshore South Africa is currently making its way to site.
The Island Innovator will weigh anchor 25km off the coast of the Northern Cape to drill the Gazania-1 prospect, which is targeting some 300mln barrels of oil.
Work is expected to get underway towards the end of next month and is likely to take 25 days.
Eco Atlantic and its partners plan to seal and plug the well after the test with the option to drill a side-track, depending on what is discovered.
Gazania-1 is on block 2B in the Orange Basin, a new oil frontier that has been host to significant discoveries by Shell and Total.
Shell’s Graff-1 well on the Namibia side of the sea border is said to have uncovered 2bn barrels of crude, though this has not officially been confirmed by the Anglo-Dutch giant.
According to the oil and gas research team at City broker Peel Hunt, Gazania, while south of the other two is in the same geological basin. In fact, historic drilling in Eco Atlantic’s area discovered light crude.
"A successful outcome at the Gazania-1 well has the potential to be transformational for Eco and our JV partners,” said Colin Kinley, the company’s chief operating officer.
Eco Atlantic owns 50% of Block B, with the remainder held by Africa Energy, Panoro and Crown Energy.