The world’s largest diversified resources group, BHP
Billiton, will drill an exploration well in the Block 3B/4B
deerock crusher equipment to sandpwater exploration block offshore of South Africa’s West
eurotec super mini concrete batch plantCoast region in the middle of the year.
BHP Billiton vice-president investor and media relations Michael
Campbell says that the group’s energy division has already
conducted two-dimensional and three-dimensional assessments of
Block 3B/4B.
According to Campbell, the assess-ments indicated that the
exploration block could be prospective, and promp-ted the
company’s decision to prepare to drill an exploration well
this year.
Block 3B/4B covers an area of 21 630 km2 and is located 175 km
north-west of Cape Town, with water depths ranging from 300 m to 2
500 m.
BHP Billiton Energy Group – which consists of the diversified
resource group’s petroleum and coal businesses –
acquired a 90% operating indealers and supplier of crusher in europeterest in the block from Global Energy
Offshore exploration in May 2002. The licence covers a period of
seven and a half years, which started in Feb-ruary 2002.
In the event of a dis-covery, the South African Petroleum Agency
(Petro-SA) has the right to acquire a 10% interest in the
project.
PetroSA is the majority stakeholder in all three of the
country’s existing oil-fields. There are high hopes for large
hydrocarbon dis-coveries and the expectation has been raised in
some quarters that the finding and drilling of a significant
resource could move the country much closer to self-sufficiency in
oil supply.
South Africa currently imports more than 90% of the crude oil used
in the production of liquid fuels.
The Sable, Oribi and Oryx oilfields offshore of the southern coast
of the Western Cape currently produce about a tenth of the
country’s crude oil requirements. BHP Billiton ranks as 24th
largest petroleum producer worldwide, and produced 122,5-million
barrels of oil equivalent last financial year to June 30.
Addressing the media last month, BHP Billiton petroleum president
exploration and business development Steve Bell said that the
energy group was selectively expanding into new areas, including
South Africa.
He added that the company anti-cipates spending increases in South
Africa as its exploration activities move into the drilling
phase.
“In South Africa and Borneo we are targeting high-margin
opportunities where we already have country or commercial
expertise,” Bell com-mented. “We have a significant
position on the West Coast of South Africa where we have a large
block optioned.We are positioned in what we think is a fairly
exciting rank wildcat play off the South African coast in the
Atlantic,” Bell continued.
However, in terms of global spending, exploration for hydrocarbons
in South Africa is ranked low on the group’s list of
priorities. Exploration activities in the Gulf of Mexico will
receive two thirds, or $200-million, of the group’s
$300-million exploration budget this year.