Afren, Oriental, Addax Ink Deal on Okwok Field

Afren has extended its indigenous partnership in Nigeria with Oriental and formed its first Nigerian partnership with Addax Petroleum, to jointly develop the Okwok Field .
 Under the terms of the farm-in agreement with Addax Petroleum, Afren as Technical Advisor, will acquire a 28 percent legal interest and an effective 70 percent economic interest (pre cost recovery), reverting to 56 percent (post cost recovery), subject to gross volumes lifted. Afren has undertaken to fund the drilling of one exploration or appraisal well, after which Afren and Addax Petroleum will jointly fund field development costs pro-rata (70 percent and 30 percent respectively).
In 2001, Mobil Producing Nigeria Limited ("Mobil") contributed Okwok to Nigeria's Marginal Field Program, which was established by the Nigerian government to encourage greater indigenous participation in the oil and gas sector. Pursuant to this program, Oriental completed a farm-in agreement for Okwok with Mobil and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ("NNPC") in June 2006. Addax Petroleum subsequently entered into a JVA with Oriental, acquiring a 40 percent interest in Okwok and assumed the role of Technical Advisor. The field benefits from the Nigerian Marginal Field Fiscal and Tax Regime.
Following the farm-in to develop the nearby Ebok Field with Oriental in March 2008, Afren had entered into a collaborative agreement with Oriental to pursue other assets in the region. Okwok represents an important step within this collaboration agreement, focused on a region where a large number of existing fields similar to Okwok and Ebok are good candidates for future development.
Under the field technical description, Okwok is an undeveloped oil field located in OML 67, 50 km offshore in 132 ft of water and 15 km east of the Afren/Oriental owned Ebok development.
The field was discovered by the ExxonMobil / NNPC JV in 1967 (Okwok-1), and two subsequent appraisal wells were drilled in 1968 (Okwok-2 and Okwok-3) but not production tested. The wells encountered oil in the LD1and D2 series of reservoirs with over 100 ft of oil pay logged in the Okwok-2 well at the D2 level plus multiple 50 ft oil bearing sections in the LD1 in Okwok-1 and Okwok-2.
Oriental and Addax Petroleum drilled a further three wells in 2006 which found over 100 ft of oil pay in the D2 of Okwok-4st and an approximate equivalent amount of pay in the LD1 series in Okwok-8. The Okwok-4ST1 well sampled 32° API quality crude, while Okwok-8 tested 27 degrees API quality crude oil at a rate of 1,200 bopd per day from the LD1 reservoir interval.
Through the Company's enhanced technical understanding of the area based on detailed work and appraisal drilling at Ebok, Afren estimates:
That the field has STOIIP of 225 mmbbls in the D2 and LD1c, LD1d and LD1e reservoirs;
Assuming a 32 percent recovery factor, 70 mmbbls of oil in place could potentially be produced; and
Upside exploration potential at the deeper Qua Iboe level could add significantly to the reserves base. Two prospects have been identified and are each estimated to contain circa 200 mmbbls STOIIP.