Oil & Gas Corporate News
Circle Oil (LON:COP) (BUY, £0.90) (COP, 34p, ? (3.03%)) provided an operational updates on Morocco and Oman. In Morocco, following the winter flooding existing access roads have been repaired and new access roads and concrete drilling bases for the first three five wells in the current five well drilling program have been completed. The civil engineering works for the fourth wellsite are currently in progress. The drilling rig has now commenced drilling at the first wellsite in the Sebou Permit. The first well, designated KAB-1, is planned to drill to a Miocene Guebbas Sand target with the well expected to TD at 1,360m. The drilling of this and each subsequent well in this campaign are presently expected to take approximately five to six weeks per well. All wells are targeting Miocene aged gas sand targets at depths of 900-1,700m. As part of this campaign, the DRJ-6 well drilled in 2009 is scheduled to be tested. As previously announced, a local transport strike prevented its testing during that drilling campaign. Pre-planning for the 62km extension to the gas trunk line is well advanced and the order for materials for the new 8 pipeline, with a transport capacity of 23MMscfd, has been placed. Total gas production from our Morocco wells from start up in November 2008 to end August 2010 is 923MMscf with gross daily production of 1.4-2.2MMscfd, contracted to supply local industry demands. In Oman, the acquisition of a 900km2 3D seismic survey in Block 49 has been completed together with a 2D tie line of approximately 130km between nearby wells. The field data is being transferred for processing and this will be followed by comprehensive interpretation in the Companys offices in the UK and Oman. Early interpretations of the field data have indicated the potential presence of the Ara Salt sequence, a major productive interval in adjacent areas of southern Oman. The acquisition contract for a 2D marine seismic survey has been awarded and signed with BGP Oil & Gas Services LLC. The vessel, BGP Challenger, will acquire 5,000km of 2D data to assist in firming up and maturing the prospect inventory within the Block and is expected to undertake the survey in the latter part of Q4 2010 with field operations presently scheduled to be completed before year end.
Comment: The 2010 drilling campaign in Morocco is finally underway after a 6-month…
