BPCL, Videocon strike gas in Africa

Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Videocon Industries may have run into yet another profitable offshore block in partnership with the Texas-based Anadarko, three months after the duo struck a big oil reserve in Brazil’s sub-salt belt.

In what has been described as the first such discovery in offshore East Africa, the American firm found gas while drilling the first well in the deep water Rovuma Basin off the coast of Mozambique in southern African coast, in the Indian Ocean.

Like in the case of the Wahoo discovery off the Brazilian coast, this block, too, has BPCL and Videocon teaming up with Anadarko, the operator and Britain’s Cove Energy. The two Indian companies own 11.75% each in the offshore prospect.

The well encountered a substantial hydrocarbon column in excellent quality reservoirs. Importantly this discovery, the first of its kind offshore east Africa, unlocks the hydrocarbon potential of a new petroleum province in the Rovuma basin offshore Mozambique and paves the way for more success in our fully funded ongoing deepwater drilling campaign.

Videocon and BPCL had acquired their stakes in the basin from Anadarko in August 2008, two years after the American firm won its rights to the block. While Videocon paid $75 million, BPCL’s price has not been revealed.