Oil & Gas Corporate News
Dana Petroleum Plc (LON:DNX) (DNX, 1710.0p, ? (0.35%)) announced that the Fin-1X exploration well has discovered a new oil field, in the North Zeit Bay Production Sharing Contract ("PSC") area onshore in the Gulf of Suez, in Egypt. This follows the discovery of the Lorcan oil field, made just last month in the same PSC area. The Fin-1X well (Dana 100% stakeholder and Operator) was drilled to a depth of 10,038 ft, some 3km from the Lorcan oil discovery announced in June. The Fin-1X well encountered good quality oil bearing sands in the Kareem formation, in line with Dana's prognosis prior to drilling. During the drill stem test, the Fin-1X well flowed strongly with high downhole pressures delivering an average flow rate of 1,049 barrels of oil per day through a 52/64" choke. The flow rate during this test was restricted by the temporary flow testing facilities and the requirements to truck the produced oil from the desert location. The well has been retained as a future oil producer. The Fin discovery together with Lorcan, which flowed at 4,714 barrels of oil per day and was also constrained by the testing equipment, confirms this area will be very attractive to develop. A preliminary development plan has already been submitted to the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) for agreement. Dana estimates that these two discoveries so far in this PSC area have proven up initial reserves of 10-12 million barrels of oil (100% Dana) with the potential for considerable upside beyond these initial proved volumes. Further drilling is planned.
Melrose (LON:MRO) Resources Plc (MRS, 319.0p, ? (1.92%)) announced an exploration discovery in the Galata block offshore Bulgaria. The Kavarna East No.1 well has been successfully drilled to test an exploration prospect approximately 10 kilometres to the east of the Melrose operated Galata field production platform. The new gas discovery lies in between two other recent discoveries, Kavarna and Kaliakra, which contain combined reserves of 74 Bcf and are currently being developed using sub-sea production wells tied back to the Galata platform. The Kavarna East No.1 well penetrated the top of the Paleocene reservoir interval at a depth of 2753 feet and encountered a net gas pay of 89 feet with an average porosity of 29 percent. The preliminary reserves estimate for the discovery is 12 Bcf, in line with pre-drill estimates, and…
