Dominion Receives Block Extension Offshore Tanzania

Dominion Receives Block Extension Offshore Tanzania

Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Dominion Petroleum Ltd.

Dominion has been granted a 1 year extension to the Initial Exploration Period for its deepwater Block 7 by the United Republic of Tanzania's Ministry of Energy and Minerals.
The extension to the current period removes any obligation for the company to relinquish any portion of Block 7 until May of next year, providing Dominion with much more time to more fully evaluate the acreage before a mandatory 50% relinquishment at the close of the Initial Period.

Late last year, Dominion acquired a 3-D seismic survey on Block 7 and is presently processing these data in full while interpreting the "Fast Track" volume; the survey was initially focused on the Alpha prospect.

However, the "Fast Track" volume has led to the identification of numerous other prospects of similar scale to Alpha and final processing for the survey is likely to be completed in early May. The company may acquire new 2D, or additional 3D, data this year in the block to mature some of the additional leads and prospects identified since last year's competent persons report (CPR).

A competent persons report (CPR) prepared, in September 2010, by Energy Resource Consultants Ltd confirmed a mean prospective resource of 7Tcf of natural gas, or 1.1 billion barrels of oil, for the Alpha prospect alone. The 3D and recent drilling results in the area have positively impacted the prospectivity of Block 7 in a material way.

In granting the extension, the Ministry noted Dominion's good working track record in Tanzania. The additional time means that Dominion can continue to assess the whole of block, and possibly acquire more data, to better decide how to proceed toward drilling.
Andrew Cochran, Chief Executive of Dominion Petroleum, commented, "We thank the Government of Tanzania for granting us this extension. It is a validation of the technical work we have done to date and reflects the huge scale in terms of prospectivity that Block 7 represents.

"The extension of the license will allow us to better formulate plans on a drilling program for our deepwater East Africa portfolio in 2012. As the area becomes more and more competitive by the day our position becomes more and more strategic."