Tullow Oil Plc. has announced the find of oil at its Twiga South-1 field in Kenya, with results also showing potential for further finds in the area.

The company announced the find of 30 metres of net oil pay in a statement on Monday, revealing that drilling at the Block 13T well in the Twiga South-1 field had been successful.  The company first found oil at Twiga South-1 in October of this year, but in order to establish the viability of the site further drilling was required.

Tullow added today that a further section of tight fractured rock included hydrocarbon shows at an interval of 796 metres, pointing to the extensive potential of the region.

Drilled to 3,250 metres, oil from the Twiga South-1 field has been found to have an API greater than 30 degrees, with samples already successfully brought up to the surface.

Tullow first found oil in Kenya in March of this year, at the Ngamia 1 well on Block 10BB, near to the Twiga South 1 site.  The find has prompted wide-spread interest in East Africa – as companies vie to uncover potentially significant natural oil reserves.

Oil reserves found in the northern Kenyan province of Turkana has revealed oil deposits of a similar texture and quality to that found in the Lake Albert basin in neighbouring Uganda.

The company will now embark of a series of flow testing over the next 4 to 8 weeks, following which the rig will move on the famed Ngamia-1 site to continue testing there.

Speaking on Tullow’s increasingly positive prospects in East Africa, as demonstrated by the latest find, Exploration Director for Tullow Angus McCoss: “Following the basin-opening Ngamia-1 well result earlier this year, I am pleased to announce that our second well in our onshore Kenya rift basins campaign has also discovered oil. This immediate follow on discovery reaffirms the considerable prospectivity of the Lokichar Basin. Having significantly expanded our plans in Kenya and Ethiopia, there is much to look forward to as the exploration campaign and testing programme move ahead.”