End year 2017, Swala Oil and Gas (Tanzania) plc (Swala) confirmed its acquisition of the local subsidiary Surestream Petroleum (Burundi) Ltd, wholly-owned by Surestream Petroleum Limited that operates the Block D. The company entered into an agreement with Surestream in September 2016.  Block D is under a state of Force Majeure since September 2016. The company will decide in the next few months if the political situation improves sufficiently to withdraw the state of Force Majeure, in which case Swala will start looking for partners to share the cost of the exploration commitments.  The 866 sq km licence is located in the Tanganyika Graben (EARS, West Branch) on the Lake Tanganyika.  Geological interpretations for Block D indicate the presence of shallow fault block plays with basal sands charged from a deep kitchen in the west (the Kigoma kitchen). Oil seepages both onshore and on the surface of the lake prove the presence of hydrocarbons, although none of the two exploratory wells drilled in Burundi to date (Ruzizi 1 and Buring 1) has hit any oil column so far. The Lake Tanganyika lies on the western branch of the East African Rift System. It extends north-south for over 670 km, averages 50 km in width and covers 32,000 sq km, with a mean and maximum depth of 570 m and 1,470 m, respectively. The western strand lies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, while the eastern strand stretches from Burundi to Tanzania. In the northern part of the lake, the thickest sedimentary column is expected on the DRC side. The basin in Burundi is believed to be the strongest analogue to the Albertine Basin in Uganda and consists of several half grabens with Neogene-aged rift sediments.
Swala O&G confirmed its acquisition of the local subsidiary Surestream Petroleum, concerning is Block D under a state of Force Majeure since September 2016.