The well is being directionally drilled from the island of Kiliwni into the same reservoir that is producing gas in the Songo Songo gas field, 4km away.

Drilling is expected to take 40 days to reach a total depth of 2500m in the Lower Cretaceous Sandstones.

“Our team in Tanzania did a good job to relocate the rig to the Kilwani-1 well site,” Key managing director Ken Russell said.

“The relocation took less time than originally planned. We now look forward to this second phase of the project, the actual drilling of Kiliwani-1.”

The second well, Kiliwani North-1, will test the same reservoir system, as well as a shallower oil play with the potential to contain 10 million barrels of recoverable oil.

Key Petroleum, which listed on the Australian bourse in April, will have a 20% interest in the PSC by paying 30% of the cost to drill the two wells.

Fellow Australian junior Bounty will have a 6% stake, while operator Aminex has 39%, RAK Gas has 25% and East Africa Exploration has 10%.