Drilling Operations Shaikan-2

RNS Number : 1440X

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd

01 December 2010

 



Not for release, publication or distribution in or into the United States or jurisdictions other than the United Kingdom and Bermuda where to do so would constitute a contravention of the relevant laws of such jurisdiction.

01 December 2010

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (AIM: GKP)

("Gulf Keystone" or "the Company")

Kurdistan Operational Update:

Commencement of Drilling Operations on the Shaikan-2 Appraisal Well

Gulf Keystone announces the commencement of drilling operations on its Shaikan-2 appraisal well, on December 1, 2010.  This is the first deep appraisal well to be drilled on the Company's substantial Shaikan oil discovery.  Gulf Keystone has an effective 75 percent working interest in the Block and is partnered with the MOL subsidiary, Kalegran, which has 20 percent and Texas Keystone International has the remaining 5 percent.

The well design for Shaikan-2 has been modified to drill through the geopressured sections of the Triassic age rocks. This high pressure interval forced the cessation of drilling on Shaikan-1, when the well experienced the inflow of significant volumes of oil and gas from a section of the middle Triassic.  The Shaikan-2 well is designed to drill through the Cretaceous, Jurassic and the Triassic, to a planned total depth in the Permian, depending on well results, of 5,000 meters.  Drilling and testing is expected to take six months.

John Gerstenlauer, Gulf Keystone's Chief Operating Officer commented:

 "We are very excited to finally be spudding our first deep appraisal well on the Shaikan structure.  In the success case, we hope for, as a minimum, a significant increase in our current P90 volume of 1.9 billion barrels of oil in place, thus narrowing the possible range of oil in place numbers.  In the upside case, we would, of course, also hope for a further upward movement of our P10 volume which is currently independently estimated at 7.4 billion barrels of oil in place."

Enquiries:

Gulf Keystone Petroleum:	[phone]
Todd Kozel, Executive Chairman
Ewen Ainsworth, Chief Financial Officer
Strand Hanson Limited	[phone]
Simon Raggett / Rory Murphy / James Harris
Mirabaud Securities LLP	[phone]
Peter Krens
Pelham Bell Pottinger James Henderson / Mark Antelme	+44 (0)  7861 3232

or visit: www.gulfkeystone.com

John Gerstenlauer, the Company's Chief Operating Officer, who has 31 years of relevant experience within the sector meets the criteria of a qualified person under the AIM note for mining, oil and gas companies and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this announcement.  Mr. Gerstenlauer is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Notes to Editors:

·      Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (AIM: GKP) is an independent oil and gas exploration company focused on exploration in the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq.

·      Gulf Keystone Petroleum International (GKPI) holds Production Sharing Contracts for four exploration blocks in Kurdistan. The Company is currently embarking on an active appraisal and exploration drilling campaign in Kurdistan, including work to fully understand the scale of the world class Shaikan Field discovered in 2009.

·      Oil initially-in-place is that quantity of petroleum that is estimated, as of a given date, to be contained in known accumulations prior to production. The range of uncertainty of the oil-in-place volumes is represented by a probability distribution with a low and high provided: P90 represents at least a 90% probability (high) that the quantities determined to be in place will equal or exceed the low estimate and P10 represents at least a 10% probability (low) that the quantities determined to be in place will equal or exceed the high estimate.  P1 represents at least a 1% probability that the quantities determined to be in place will equal or exceed the ultimate upside estimate.

Not for release, publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or jurisdictions other than the United Kingdom and Bermuda where to do so would constitute a contravention of the relevant laws of such jurisdiction. This document (and the information contained herein) does not contain or constitute an offer of securities for sale, or solicitation of an offer to purchase securities, in the United States or jurisdictions other than the United Kingdom and Bermuda where to do so would constitute a contravention of the relevant laws of such jurisdiction. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States unless the securities are registered under the Securities Act, or an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act is available. No public offering of the securities will be made in the United States.

 

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