WorldOil

What’s new in exploration

Exploration activity is heating up in Mozambique as Anadarko prepares to drill its first well before the end of 2009. The company is committed to an eight-well drilling campaign during the next three years. Eni, StatoilHydro, ExxonMobil and Ophir Energy also plan to drill offshore Mozambique and neighboring Tanzania and Madagascar. There are three main petroleum provinces in Mozambique (see map). The Rovuma Basin, where Anadarko’s block is located, is in the northern part of the country, both onshore and offshore, and extends into Tanzania and Kenya. The Mozambique Basin includes most of the southern coastal plain, as well as parts of the continental shelf and slope. The Mozambique Channel consists of several offshore basins between Mozambique and Madagascar. The basins of the East African margin developed in response to the initial rifting of Gondwanaland and subsequent separation of the Madagascar-India-Antarctica plate from Africa. The Karoo Group was deposited from Permian to Middle Jurassic, and consists of reservoir-quality sandstones, and lacustrine to restricted marine shale source rocks.