History
Thirty years after its discovery in 1974 production from the Songo Songo gas field commenced in July 2004. During the intervening period from discovery to production the field like many large discovered pools of natural gas in the developing world, was considered “trapped gas” due to a lack of infrastructure to transport the gas and no developed markets.
Ocelot International Inc., later becoming an affiliate of Orca through PanOcean Energy Corporation, entered into an agreement with TPDC in July 1991 to evaluate the economic viability of developing the field to generate electricity. Ocelot conducted an extensive review of the geology, geophysics and productivity of the five existing wells, which led to confirmation of sufficient quantities of natural gas to supply a gas to electricity project and submission of a formal development plan in May 2001.
To bring Songo Songo on line and to build markets for natural gas sales in East Africa, Ocelot attracted industrial partners to the project, and facilitated the financing of the project by a consortium of multi-lateral lending agencies led by the World Bank. Initially, the development of the field was focused primarily on meeting the needs of a single gas-to-electricity power plant at Dar es Salaam, and gas production commenced in June 2004.
In 2001, the Company sold its power generation interests in the project to The AES Corporation, while retaining the rights to market additional reserves associated with the uncommitted gas in the Songo Songo field.
Orca Exploration Group Inc. previously operated as EastCoast Energy Corporation. EastCoast Energy was originally a subsidiary of PanOcean Energy Corporation, but in August 2004, it was distributed to the shareholders and separately listed on the TSXV under the symbols ECE.A and ECE.B. On 14 November 2006 EastCoast Energy shareholders approved a name change to Orca Exploration Group Inc. Upon approval of regulatory authorities, Orca commenced trading on the TSXV on 4 April 2007.