Ophir Energy announced that its partner, Shell, is making preparations to commence exploration drilling offshore Tanzania before the of end 2016, Ecofin Agency. Shell became an operator on the blocks after taking over from BG Group.

The $20m drilling program will comprise two wells on Blocks 1 and 4 and target an excess of 1tcf of gas, according to Daily News.

Statoil and ExxonMobil are further developing the blocks with pre-front end engineering and design (FEED) on an onshore liquified natural gas (LNG) plant that will take in Blocks 1 and 4, as well as Block 2. FEED is expected to start following the completion of the LNG site acquisition, the geotechnical investigations and engineering studies, as well as concept selection for the upstream part of the project which will determine the configuration and production rates from each of the fields.