West Africa: Innoson Says Close to Huge Gas Find in Sierra Leone

The Innoson Oil & Gas limited announced Saturday it is on the verge of discovering a huge deposit of 8.2 trillion cubic feet (TCF) and 234 MMbbl of gas and condensate in its Sierra Leonean basin.

A statement by Cornel Osigwe, head of Corporate Communications of the company, said that an independent energy consulting firm, Ryder Scott Company, confirmed Innoson Oil & Gas Ltd’s findings from a rigorous hydrocarbon exploration campaign it had been conducting in the Sierra Leonean basin since 2020.

“IOG was awarded nine graticular provisional blocks in May 2020,” the statement said, adding that the following year, the parliament of Sierra Leone ratified a petroleum exploration and production license in favour of IOG as confirmed in a letter of conveyance to IOG in April 2021.

The company disclosed that the said the Sierra Leonean basin has a working petroleum system, corroborated by oil deposits encountered during previous exploration activities amongst others by Anadarko, Repsol, and Tullow Oil that achieved the Venus B1 discovery and Mercury wells.

Martin Nweke, IOG’s administrative director noted that boldness, and the willingness to deploy unconventional technology, constitute foundational propositions that drove the campaign of the industry novice.

The statement noted that with cost, time, and precision quintessential, the IOG exploration team led by Andrey Sergeev, Project Director and Chief Geologist, deployed a robust earth remote sensing (ERS) method for basin reconnaissance.

Innoson said Saturday that a development opportunity is currently being appraised.

Similarly, the company said that asset evaluation, a field development plan, and the setup of a data room are vigorously pursued with the immediate objective to engage a partner with the financial strength, technological and management competencies to accomplish joint discovery, development, and production.

IOG says it has a 100% working interest on the prospect with a 10% carried, plus an optional 5% paid interest(s) for the state of Sierra Leone. Attractive fiscal and tax regimes by the state of Sierra Leone offer a flexible and robust environment for operations, it added.

Innoson Oil and Gas Ltd is a company under the IVM Innoson Group, a multi-dimensional business organization that has various business interests in automobile manufacturing and assembling, plastic production oil and gas, ICT, wood processing and hospitality.

The oil and gas company located in Uru Umudim, Nnewi, Anambra State was incorporated in 2019 as an expansion of Innoson Petrochemicals Ltd which has been in operation for 10 years.