ERHC Energy Inc., a publicly traded American company with oil and gas assets in the highly prospective Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa, announces that Addax Petroleum, the operator of Nigeria-Sao Tome & Principe Joint Development Zone (JDZ) Block 4, has commenced drilling the Oki East well this week. ERHC Energy has a 19.5 percent interest in the Block. Drilling is estimated to take approximately five weeks, although the actual timing is dependent on many factors, such as drilling penetration rate, fluids encountered, borehole stability and equipment maintenance, among others.
This is the third well in JDZ Block 4 and the fifth well drilled in JDZ Blocks in which ERHC has interests since the start of a comprehensive exploratory drilling campaign in August. Addax Petroleum will continue to use Transocean's Deepwater Pathfinder to drill the Oki East location.
Addax Petroleum recently finished drilling the Malanza 1X well in JDZ Block 4. A comprehensive analysis that incorporates the drilling results into relevant geologic and fluid models will now be carried out.
"Our technical partners, Addax Petroleum and Sinopec, have demonstrated our collective determination toward successful completion of the promised five-well exploratory drilling campaign in JDZ Blocks 2, 3 and 4," said Peter Ntephe, chief operating officer with ERHC. "The goal of the campaign is to accurately determine the hydrocarbon potential of the Blocks and the substantial resources that have been deployed so far illustrate the parties' commitment to achieving that goal."
Earlier, Addax Petroleum drilled the Kina well, also in JDZ Block 4. The comprehensive exploratory drilling campaign also included the Lemba 1X well in JDZ Block 3, in which ERHC has a 10 percent interest and the Bomu-1 well in JDZ Block 2 in which ERHC has a 22 percent interest.
ERHC Energy has interests in six of the nine Blocks in the offshore JDZ. The Company has additional interests in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé & Príncipe.
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