27th Feb 2012 07:00
27 February 2012
PRESIDENT PETROLEUM COMPANY PLC
("President" or "the Company")
Further new oil in place identified in undeveloped reservoir
President, the oil company focused on Argentina, announces that as part of its continued studies on its Puesto Guardian Concession in Argentina, further previously unidentified oil in place has been preliminarily assessed in Cretaceous limestone reservoirs on two more areas in the Concession.
The aggregate new oil in place identified by President totals a Mean 16 million barrels, comprising 13 million barrels from the Puesto Guardian field area and 3 million barrels from the Canada Grande field area. The oil in place has been assessed internally by President following scoping of Cretaceous limestone intervals which have not been included in the current reserves. These are shallow marine reservoirs lying at approximately 3.300 metres directly above the sandstones that have historically been the main focus of production. There are existing wells which could be used to re-complete and frac to produce these volumes. Potential recovery factors are yet to be determined, and further analyses will be performed following results from production.
The oil in place figure of 16 million barrels is in addition to the previously announced newly identified oil in place of 50 million barrels in the Pozo Escondido field.
Further studies now continue on the rest of the Concession. These studies include the consideration of an approximately 90 km2 area to the west of the Pozo Escondido field. Four old wells from the 1980s have so far been subjected to petro-physical review. One had oil shows in the cores and cuttings, and the three others all flowed light oil (API 40-45) in varying amounts from drill stem tests. One of the wells continues to produce oil to surface today without ever having been completed (i.e just drill string and well head). No oil in place or reserves have been attributed to this area to date, which is large and complex, and further work is required to improve understanding.
The previously announced work plan of a multi-well re-entry and frac programme targeting both sandstone and limestone intervals is underway. This work is envisaged to continue for several months as new candidate wells on the various fields in the Concession are identified and added to the programme.
Peter Levine, Chairman of President Petroleum Company Holdings BV
"The ongoing petro-physical work being conducted represents early stage in house scoping studies, but we know enough now to say that this signals an exciting new area of focus for the work programme. We are confident that the limestone intervals, previously unacknowledged, represent a new undeveloped reservoir, and are expeditiously pursuing activity to exploit these horizons, with reserve reports to follow at a later stage."
For further information contact:
President Petroleum Company
John Hamilton, Interim Chairman +44 (0) 207 811 0140
Ben Wilkinson, Finance Director +44 (0) 207 811 0140
RBC Capital Markets
Jeremy Low, Stephen Foss, Matthew Coakes +44 (0) 207 653 4000
Pelham Bell Pottinger +44 (0) 207 861 3232
James Henderson, Mark Antelme
Dr Jonathan M Cohen, FGS, C Geol, Executive Vice President Exploration, meets the criteria of
qualified persons under the AIM guidance note for mining and oil and gas companies, has reviewed
and approved the technical information contained in this announcement.
Related Shares:
PPC.L