Australian Securities Exchange-listed exploration firms FAR Limited and Pancontinental Oil and Gas are seeking to sell part of their exploration rights on a block off the coast of Kenya, to raise funds that will be used in drilling.

FAR Limited currently owns 60 per cent of block L6, which has three prospects; Tembo, Kifaru and Kifaru West, while the remaining 40 per cent of the joint venture is owned by Pancontinental.

“The Kifaru Prospects are interpreted to have oil potential and the Joint Venture is currently seeking a farminee for a first well, possibly in 2014,” said Pancontinental in its latest shareholder update released on Monday.

In disclosures contained in its latest annual report for the period ended December 2012, FAR said that the combined prospective resources for the L6 block have been assessed at 3.7 billion barrels of oil or 10.2 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The company said that Tembo, Kifaru and Kifaru West have prospective resources of; 327, 178 and 130 million barrels of oil respectively or 807, 517 and 388 billion cubic feet of gas.

Chances of a discovery of the three prospects have been assessed to be 21 per cent, 19 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.

The cost of prospecting and drilling can run into millions of dollars and chances of striking oil or gas are usually low.

United States based Anadarko Petroleum Corp in April this year for instance drilled the Kubwa 1 well on the adjacent block L7 but encountered non-commercial oil deposits.

Disclosures in Anadarko’s annual report show that the firm incurred combined geological and geophysical expenses in Kenya, Liberia, New Zealand, and Mozambique amounting to $151 million for the period ended December last year.

“Recent 3D seismic in L6 has proven up a number of large Prospects for drilling. The largest of these are two Kifaru Miocene Reef Prospects and the clastic (sandstone) Tembo Prospect,” said Pancontinental in its shareholder update.

Pancontinental, which also has a 15 per cent interest in block L8 which is operated by Apache Corporation and a 15 per cent interest in blocks L10A and L10B which are operated by BG Group, said that its interest in L8 may be reduced to 10 per cent by farmout to British explorer Tullow Oil.