Rift Helium plc (AIM: RIFT) has started mobilisation for a fully funded 3D seismic programme at its flagship Upepo Project in Tanzania’s Rukwa Basin, marking another step towards a planned two-well exploration campaign in 2027.
Mobilisation follows receipt of the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment certificate, with 3D seismic field acquisition scheduled to begin during the fourth quarter of 2026.
The programme is designed to provide Rift with a substantially more detailed picture of the subsurface structures beneath Upepo, allowing the company to better define and rank its exploration targets before committing capital to drilling.
The resulting data will support an updated independent resource assessment targeted for the first quarter of 2027, before final well locations are selected for the company’s two-well exploration programme.
Rift remains on schedule to drill its first exploration well during the first half of 2027.
Existing geological information and 2D seismic have already identified five exploration leads across the Upepo Project, principally within the eastern PL12093/2022 licence.
While existing 2D seismic provides individual cross-sections of the subsurface, the new 3D survey will allow Rift to build a more complete model of the size, shape and boundaries of potential helium-trapping structures.
It should also provide greater visibility of faults and other geological features that could influence whether helium can be successfully contained.
Rift stressed that 3D seismic does not itself confirm the presence of helium. Instead, it is intended to improve the company’s understanding of structures where helium could potentially accumulate and increase confidence when selecting drilling locations.
The programme forms part of Rift’s strategy of reducing geological uncertainty before deploying more substantial capital on exploration wells.
The company entered the Rukwa Basin after other operators had already demonstrated the presence of a working helium system, allowing Rift to build on existing geological knowledge rather than attempting to establish a new helium province from scratch.
Rift describes this as its “third-mover” strategy, combining existing basin knowledge with higher-resolution seismic data to identify what it believes are the strongest drilling opportunities.
The company’s current independent prospective resource assessment contains a P50 mid-case estimate of 19 billion cubic feet of helium, alongside a mean prospective resource estimate of around 41 Bcf.
The forthcoming 3D interpretation will be used to refine those estimates and determine the final locations for the two planned exploration wells.
Rift will use lightweight portable seismic sensors and smaller field crews during the survey, allowing data acquisition with little or no line clearing. The company expects this approach to reduce ground disturbance as well as health, safety and environmental exposure.
Chief executive Charles FitzRoy said securing the EIA allowed Rift to move directly into the next stage of field activity and kept the company on the development timetable outlined at its IPO.
He said the objective was to use the best available geological and seismic information to rank the highest-potential targets and reduce uncertainty before committing capital to drilling.
With mobilisation now underway, the next major milestones will be 3D seismic acquisition in Q4 2026, an updated independent resource assessment in Q1 2027 and the first Upepo exploration well in H1 2027.
