Tanzania rewarding for Statoil

STAVANGER, Norway, June 19 (UPI) -- With the latest discovery of natural gas, Tanzania is quickly becoming a key exploration asset for Statoil, a senior vice president for the region said.

Statoil announced it made what it said was a high-impact natural gas discovery off the coast of Tanzania. It's the sixth such discovery in the area for Statoil and its partners at Exxon Mobil.

"Since 2012, we have had a 100 percent success rate in Tanzania and the area has become a core exploration area in a very short period of time," Nick Maden, a senior vice president for Statoil's exploration activities in the Western Hemisphere, said in a statement Wednesday.

The discovery in the Piri prospect of the so-called Block 2 area off the Tanzanian coast holds at least 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and brings the block's total volumes to approximately 20 trillion cubic feet.

Maden said other areas have been mapped out and will be tested later this year and in 2015. The company is planning "several" additional exploration and appraisal wells off the coast of Tanzania, he added.