23rd Jul 2007 07:01
Matra Petroleum PLC23 July 2007 PRESS RELEASE For immediate release: 23 July 2007 Matra Petroleum plc ("Matra" or the "Company") Matra Petroleum announces the spudding of its first well in Russia Matra Petroleum plc has spudded its first well of a four well drilling programmein Russia on the Arkhangelovskoe License, 20kms north of Orenburg city. Thewell, Arkhangelovskoe - 12, in which Matra has a 100% interest via its Russiansubsidiary "OOO Arkhangelovskoe", will be drilled using Orenburg DrillingCompany's rig 3-D and will test the Sokolovskaya structure. The well spudded on 20 July, and drilling is expected to take approximately 120days to reach a total depth of 3900m, testing up to five potential reservoirtargets within the Permian, Carboniferous and Devonian formations that areproductive in nearby fields. The well is expected to cost approximately $4.6million. Extensive coring and open-hole testing is planned in the zones of interest, thefirst of which are estimated to be encountered after approximately 65 days. Peter Hind, Matra's Managing Director said: "This is a highly prospective well and success will have a huge impact on thecompany. Having acquired the Arkhangelovskoe Licence as recently as March 2007,I am delighted that we have been able to move quickly to contract a rig and tobe spudding our first ever well in Russia." On 9th July 2007 Matra announced a gas discovery from its 40% owned Horvatkut-1well in Hungary. The information in this report that relates to technical matters has beencompiled by Dr Neil Hodgson (BSc, Phd) Matra's Exploration Director a PetroleumGeologist with more than 20 years experience and who is a Fellow of theGeological Society and a Member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of GreatBritain (PESGB) . For further Information, please contact: Matra Petroleum www.matrapetroleum.comPeter Hind, Managing Director +44 (0) 7990 807855Neil Hodgson, Exploration Director +44 (0) 7973 342822 Aquila Financial Limited www.aquila-financial.comPeter Reilly +44 (0) 207 7202 2601Yvonne Fraser +44 (0) 207 7202 2609 Matra's nominated Advisor is RFC Corporate Finance Ltd -Contact: Steve Allen +61894802500 Background to Arkhangelovskoe - 12 Arkhangelovskoe - 12 is the first well to be drilled on the ArkhangelovskoeLicense and Matra's first well in Russia. (NB. The well name and number isdesignated by the local authorities and is in not indicative of previousdrilling or ranking) The well will test the Sokolovskoe structure which was the subject of anindependent review by Senergy Ltd. (Senergy). The well is located up-dip fromthe 309 well (some 4 kms to the North and outside the Arkhangelovskoe License)which tested at 1850 BOPD. Senergy were asked to study the data on one of the six potential reservoirs ofthe Sokolovskoe prospect and they concluded that there was an 80% chance ofmaking a commercial oil discovery with the well and that there was a 40% chanceof discovering the most likely estimate of 32 mmbbls of prospective recoverableresources. Assuming an international oil price of US$ 50/bbl (current actual prices US$70-80/bbl) and a 10% discount rate Senergy assessed the Net Present Value to beUS$ 93 million and the Estimated Monetary Value (EMV or risked pre-drillvaluation) to be US$ 78 million. This review did not consider the other 4 potential reservoirs or the otheridentified structures on the License. In the event of a discovery, approval will be sought to allow test production atthe same time as applying for a 25-year exploitation license over the discoveryarea. Initial production may be achieved within a few months of well completionvia existing infrastructure. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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