16th Oct 2006 12:46
Dragon Oil PLC16 October 2006 Dragon Oil Plc ("Dragon") PRODUCTION AND DRILLING UPDATE Highlights • New daily peak production record of 25,471 barrels of oil per day ('bopd') achieved for the Cheleken Contract Area, offshore Turkmenistan; • Average gross production for the period as from 1 July 2006 to date of 21,113 bopd, which represents an increase of 14% on 1H 2006; • LAM 10/115 producing 1,370 bopd; • Further production gain from workover programme, of 550 bopd from well LAM 13/96. Hussain M. Sultan, Chairman and CEO of Dragon commented: "I am pleased that our production is continuing to grow and we are achievingthis through our continuous drilling programme. We are now working towardsmaking further improvements before the year-end, which will be driven by the useof two rigs to drill and complete two further development wells by then. I am particularly pleased that we have reached a peak production of over 25,000bopd for the Cheleken Contract Area as a whole, which is a milestone for theCompany. Going forward, the Company will push on to hit higher targets and tosustain production at those levels. However, I am disappointed that the wells drilled from the LAM 10 platform havetested and produced less than expected. We have now moved on to new wells whichwe hope will perform better. The results of the 3D seismic survey should enableus to select better locations for drilling." Production update Dragon announces that its average daily production from the Cheleken ContractArea for the period from 1 July 2006 to 16 October 2006 is 21,113 bopd, which is14% higher than the average gross production of 18,576 bopd for 1H 2006. Furthermore, Dragon has recently achieved a new daily peak production record of25,471 bopd. Drilling update details Dragon announces that well 10/115, drilled from the refurbished LAM 10 platform,has been completed and is in production. The well tested at a combined rate of1,370 bopd from reservoir zones 4, 5 and 6. Operations are being undertaken toincrease the production from the well. The 'Astra' jack-up drilling rig is currently drilling a new development well,21/116, from the LAM 21 platform, and has reached a depth of 1,576 meters. Thetarget depth for this well is 3,519 m. The 'Iran Khazar' jack-up drilling rig is currently drilling a new developmentwell, 21/117, from the LAM 21 platform, and has reached a current depth of 1,677meters. The target depth for this well is 4,410 m. Workovers using wireline operations have continued with the successful workoverof well 13/96, from the LAM 13 platform. This additional workover has generatedan incremental increase in production of 550 bopd. The company will continue toundertake workovers using wireline operations, with a view to maximizing returnsfrom existing wells. The workover being undertaken on well 22/22 is ongoing using the hydraulicworkover on the LAM 22 platform. Ends Citigate Dewe Rogerson (+44 20 7638 9571) Media enquiries: Martin Jackson / George Cazenove Analyst enquiries: Nina Soon This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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