Repsol Exploracion SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Repsol YPF, an integrated oil and gas company that produces more than 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, has taken a 20% share in Blocks L5 and L7.

Holdings in the L5 and L7 JV are now Woodside (operator with a 30% stake), Dana Petroleum (30%), Repsol (20%) and Global (20%).

Brisbane-based Global will be carried for all activities through the drilling of the first well in each of these areas. Woodside and Repsol earn their farm-in equity once these two wells are drilled.

The JV has already contracted a rig for drilling. The first of the two wells is likely to be in L5 on the Pomboo prospect and this is scheduled to begin in October. The second well, to be drilled in Block L7, is likely to be on the Sokwe prospect.

On its website, Woodside says it regards Kenya as an under-explored frontier area with significant potential, identifying it as “the most prospective part of east Africa, with several large geological structures hosting multiple targets similar to those found on Australia’s North West Shelf”.

Woodside has identified some 50 prospects and leads, some of which have the potential to contain between several hundred million and 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.