OREANDA-NEWS. Midway Resources International ('MRI') is pleased to announce that on 27th November 2015, the Government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Energy & Petroleum, granted Zarara Oil & Gas Limited ('Zarara') and its partners, an 18 month licence extension through to June 2017, to the First Additional Exploration Period on both of the production sharing contracts for Blocks L4 and L13.  Zarara is a wholly owned subsidiary of MRI.

The extensions will enable Zarara to complete its preparation and drilling of Pate-2 well on the natural gas discovery in Lamu County (Pate-1, drilled in 1971 by Shell/BP).  Zarara is also required to acquire additional seismic data elsewhere on the licences. The seismic acquisition program will be focused on appraising a significant number of leads identified by a comprehensive aeromagnetic survey over the two blocks completed in 2013.

Zarara's drilling strategy is to fully appraise the Pate natural gas discovery and then, in partnership with leading electrical power generation partners, undertake a phased development of up to 1,000MW of electricity generation capacity nearby at Port Lamu, the proposed southern terminal of the LAPPSET Project. This will then be followed by the first phase of gas powered generation from Pate, assuming successful appraisal of the gas resource by Pate-2 and the follow-on development wells.

Zarara is the Operator and has a 75% working interest in the two blocks. Its partners are Swiss Oil Holdings Ltd (15%) and the balance of 10% being a carried interest of the Government of Kenya.