Oil & Gas Corporate News
Europa Oil & Gas (EOG, 26.5p, ? (0.95%)) announced that the upper Drill Stem Test (?DST?) on the Barchiz-1 well has recovered crude oil. However, due to a failure of the DST packer to seal, the sample was contaminated with completion brine and the Operator is planning to re-run the DST with replacement equipment over the coming days to obtain better fluid and pressure data. The oil inflow demonstrates mobile hydrocarbons in the reservoir. In addition to the oil now recognised in Barchiz, this result proves the thrust belt petroleum system on-block and significantly de-risks the prospectivity of several nearby leads. A further announcement will be made following agreement on a forward programme.
Comment: The Barchiz prospect is situated in the EPI-3 Brates licence, immediately North of and along trend from a nearby oilfield with 50 million barrels of oil reserves. We understand that the target was at a depth of 1,400m with a potential of 30 million barrels of oil. This is positive news for Europa (20% interest in the licence) and although the management must wait for better fluid and pressure data, the evidence of mobile hydrocarbons is very encouraging and the nearby leads look more promising. The partner and operator is MND Group of Czech Republic with 80% shareholding through two subsidiaries.
Tower Resources (LON:TRP) (HOLD, £0.04) (TRP, 4.32p, ? (1.14%)) provided an update to shareholders on its current operations. In Licence 0010, offshore Namibia (15% carried interest) processing of the 3-D seismic is about 65% complete and data quality is confirmed by the seismic processing contractor to be excellent. Detailed interpretation to evaluate apparent direct hydrocarbon indicators will begin in February 2011. Activities by the operator, Arcadia Petroleum Limited, to put in place funding and to contract a deep water drilling rig will begin in earnest once the seismic processing is complete. The precise timing of a first well will depend on the success of these activities but drilling during the next favourable operating window, October 2011 to March 2012, remains the operational target. In Uganda, final interpretation studies of the aero gravity gradiometry survey (GGI) over Licence EA5 are complete, together with an updated interpretation of the basin supported by detailed analyses of all well data. The results are positive in demonstrating the probable existence of an active oil generation kitchen…
