Aminex on course to become serious player in African exploration
AMINEX is now in its third decade as an oil exploration vehicle but finally there are signs that the long-promised uplift in its production profile may be about to happen.
For investors, it has been a long haul. At one stage it was mainly a US-facing explorer, but latterly it has expanded its base in Africa and Asia -- including the extremely newsworthy licence it acquired to explore in North Korea.
But while North Korea certainly sparks interest, it is the operations in Africa which hold out real potential. Most of its acreage is in Tanzania, including the offshore Nyuni licence, where it is undertaking a new seismic survey which will give it a better definition of the Kiliwani North discovery.
A year ago a well on this prospect tested gas at 40 million cubic feet per day. Discussions on the development terms for the field are underway and further exploration work is also planned.
Then there are its Ruvuma licences in the south of the country. According to the company, the first well to be drilled on these licences, Mikindani-1, is likely to be started late in the third quarter this year and site preparations are well-advanced. Mikindani-1 is primarily an oil prospect.
The Ruvuma River is the border between Tanzania and Mozambique to the south. Here Aminex is in partnership with Ireland's most successful explorer, Tullow Oil. The Aminex-Tullow joint venture holds most of the onshore acreage on the Tanzanian side of the river, with exploration work operated by Tullow Oil.
Drilling
Shareholders who attended the Aminex AGM in Dublin yesterday heard that another explorer, Anadarko, is set to drill seven wells on the Mozambique side of the basin, starting this year, and it has described the area as "a lookalike of the Gulf of Mexico or the Niger Delta".
Texaco drilled an obligation well on this Aminex-Tullow acreage in 1990 but it was based on limited data and after it found only traces of crude it left the country, mainly over prevailing weak oil prices. In short, the area is still very much alive as an exploration target and there is still much to play for.
It will also be drilling in Egypt this year and has several interests in the US, including two recent discoveries. Predictably its North Korean interest has proven a difficult nut to crack and the company has had little progress to report, blaming the ongoing political situation.
Even so, Aminex insists it is excited about the possibilities in what is an under-explored region and points out that its licence has 15 years to run. Just last month it described a decision by the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Offices to cancel a trade visit by a delegation of Koreans as "a lost opportunity to restart stalled discussions on Aminex's project in the challenging political environment of North Korea".
North Korea apart, there is plenty going on with the Aminex portfolio and its partnership with Tullow signals that the company is now a serious player in the exploration game in Africa.
- Pat Boyle
