it's official - nyuni has spudded

These are extracts from an announcement published in the last 24 hours on Aminex's website:

After initial delays, drilling operations have now begun on the Nyuni licence, offshore Tanzania and a result
may be expected from the Nyuni no.1 well later this year. As reported earlier to shareholders, we have
recently acquired a 9.7% shareholding in Bounty Oil & Gas NL, a young but active exploration company
with a broad spread of prospects in Australia and New Zealand. Bounty is joining us on the Nyuni licence in
Tanzania with a 10% interest.
........
TANZANIA
In Tanzania, the Nyuni drilling programme is under way. An F200 land rig owned and operated by Dafora
Drilling of Romania is on site at Nyuni, the small island after which the 2,600 square kilometre licence is
named. By taking advantage of the island as a drilling platform, Aminex is able to use onshore technology for
drilling offshore prospects. The first bottom hole location is directly beneath Nyuni Island and therefore
avoids the need for costly directional drilling. Nyuni no. 1 is targeting formations in the Eocene, Lower
Cretaceous and Jurassic intervals. Total planned depth of the well is 3,050 metres subsea. Subject to
operating delays, which can often occur in remote locations such as Nyuni, Aminex expects to reach target
depth before the end of the year, following which the rig will be moved to nearby Okuza Island to drill a
second prospect.
The Nyuni licence is adjacent to the proved Songo Songo gas field which is forecast to be producing gas into the Songas pipeline system, currently under construction, by the middle of next year. Any gas discovered at Nyuni has right of access to the Songas line and therefore, while the market for gas in Tanzania is still only at an early stage of development, there is existing infrastructure with a variety of potential customers. However, field surveys conducted by Aminex and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation have established the presence of naturally occurring surface oil seeps in the area, including on Nyuni Island itself. Aminex therefore regards the Nyuni programme as a search for oil as well as gas. An oil discovery on the Nyuni or Okuza prospects could quickly be on test production and the oil shipped out using small tankers. Aminex has taken strong measures to protect a sensitive environment at Nyuni and to cause minimum disturbance to the ecology of the marine and land areas of the licence.
Nyuni and Okuza are two of six prospects identified by seismic over the licence, although much of the licence
does not even have seismic coverage yet, including the deep water part beyond the continental shelf.
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