Kinetiko Energy Ltd (ASX:KKO) is steadily advancing its portfolio containing one of the world’s largest onshore contingent gas resources of 4.9 Tcf (trillion cubic feet) in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa.
The company, which is focused on shallow conventional gas and coal bed methane (CBM) opportunities, is in the process of aggressively expanding exploration throughout its 7,000 square kilometres of exploration rights to increase gas reserves.
International certifiers Sproule was recently engaged to undertake the maiden gas reserve assessment.
One of the world's largest onshore gross contingent resources (2C).
Kinetiko is preparing to develop the Amersfoort GTP (gas-to-power) project after it secured licence approvals and successfully drilled the Korhaan Project wells.
The company encountered gas flow from each of the first three Korhaan Project wells (Korhaan 1 to 3) and significant gas flow rates have been achieved from Korhaan wells 4 and 3 establishing pilot production flow rates.
The gas flowed from the Korhaan wells along with existing nearby production wells KA-03PTR and KA-03PT2 are anticipated to collectively deliver between 200,000 and 250,000 standard cubic feet of gas per day being sufficient to drive first pilot GTP generation trials being completed with experienced gas-to-power partner, Vutomi Energy (Pty) Ltd Energy.
Kinetiko is upbeat as ten South African consortiums have already approached the company in the last six months seeking gas offtake transactions.
Near-term milestones to drive shareholder value.
Kinetiko CEO Nick de Blocq recently said: “The overall gassy sandstone geology evidenced by logging and testing the three new Korhaan wells has given us a lot of confidence that we have long-term feedstock support for the Amersfoort GTP project; with further cluster development available to supply increasing power output to an extremely energy hungry nation.
“This conviction has also spread to achieving maiden gas reserve certification and we have now engaged Sproule B.V. to undertake this assessment and certification.”
Pilot production phase
The pilot production phase with JV partner Vutomi Energy entails using the two historical pilot production wells KA-03PTR and KA-PT2 to join the new Korhaan wells 4 and 3 to produce gas to an in-field, containerised generator linked to the existing grid running through the adjacent farmlands.
The first phase commissioning and testing will be undertaken targeting 1MW of output.
Planned layout for the Amersfoort GTP project.
Further phases are planned for the upgrading of the conductors and transformer to enable scalable modular system increased output to 5MW.
The Kinetiko-Vutomi joint venture has already obtained electricity production licenses from South Africa's primary electricity supplier, Eskom.
The JV is finalising negotiations to procure a gas collection separator, a dehydrator system and infield water treatment solution to enable controlled gas flow to the system.
Gas consumption is growing
Gas demand in South Africa is estimated to grow by over 400% in 10 years.
There is an urgent need to maintain gas flows to thermal industries and transportation as South Africa's only existing gas source from Mozambique is expected to decline from 2024.
Meanwhile, renewable energy alternatives are decades away.
Consequently, South Africa’s domestic market is becoming increasingly attracted to the potential for gas sourced from within Kinetiko fields.
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