Morocco Drilling Activities Update

RNS Number : 3713B

Gulfsands Petroleum PLC

06 January 2015

 



Gulfsands Petroleum Plc

Morocco Drilling Activities Update

·    DRC-1 well encounters gas bearing reservoir of excellent quality representing second consecutive successful gas exploration well on Rharb Centre Permit

·    Operations on DRC-1 well to be completed within 10 days after which rig will move to next drilling location ("DOB-1")

London, 6^th January, 2015:Gulfsands Petroleum plc ("Gulfsands", the "Group" or the "Company" - AIM: GPX), the oil and gas production, exploration and development company with activities in Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and Colombia, is pleased to provide the following update on drilling activities in Morocco.

Morocco:

Rharb Drilling Operations

Drilling operations on the Dardara Southeast 1 well ("DRC-1"), located within the Rharb Centre Permit in Northern Morocco have now been concluded. Drilling operations were completed approximately two days ahead of plan.

The DRC-1 well was drilled to a Total Depth ("TD") of 1,153 metres Measured Depth ("MD") and encountered the primary reservoir target interval on prognosis at a depth of 875 metres MD. Significantly elevated gas readings obtained while drilling, as well as interpretation of geological samples and wireline logs, indicate the presence of a gas bearing sandstone reservoir section of excellent quality. 

Detailed petrophysical evaluation of DRC-1 wireline logs yield an initial interpretation indicating a 53 metres gross thickness of excellent quality reservoir sand between 875-928 metres MD, with a net gas bearing sand thickness of 16 metres, evaluated average gas saturation of 68% and average porosity of 34%. A gas-water contact has been observed in the well at approximately 895 metres MD as evidenced by wireline log and formation pressure data.

Forward Rharb Drilling Operations

In addition to encountering a potentially highly productive net gas bearing interval of 16 metres, the DRC-1 well result indicates substantial additional gas exploration potential to exist in an adjacent and up dip fault block and this will be targeted in drilling during 2015.

Due to the presence of over-pressured shales in the lower section of the well-bore, and in order to ensure that the well-bore integrity was maintained for wire-line logging operations, the well was not deepened further to the original planned TD of 1,280 metres MD.  

The DRC-1 well will now be cased and cemented, and then perforated, completed and, subject to a clean-up flow period, suspended as a future gas production well. 

Operations on the DRC-1 well are expected to be completed within 10 days. A further operational update on this well will be provided in due course.

The DRC-1 well is the second well to be drilled based on the interpretation of 3D seismic survey data shot by Gulfsands on the Rharb Centre Permit in 2013. The first well to be drilled based on these data, earlier this year, resulted in the discovery of gas in well LTU-1.

Upon completion of drilling operations at DRC-1, the Company plans to move the rig to the Douar Ouled Balkhair drilling location ("DOB-1").

The Douar Ouled Balkhair gas prospect is mapped on Gulfsands' 3D seismic survey as a fault and dip closed structural trap, and is characterised by bright seismic amplitudes and low seismic acoustic impedance signals in the same manner as was displayed by mapping on seismic of the gas reservoirs encountered in Gulfsands previous two successful gas exploration wells LTU-1 and DRC-1. The primary target sand interval lies between 808 metres MD and 870 metres MD and a secondary target interval is recognised between 973 metres MD and 1052 metres MD. The planned total depth of the DOB-1 well is 1130m MD.

Extraordinary General Meeting

Shareholders are reminded that this meeting is to be held at 10.00am on Tuesday 13^th January 2015 and that Proxy Forms completed by registered shareholders must be returned to the share registrar, Capita Registrars, not later than 10.00am on Friday 9^th January, 2015.

Mahdi Sajjad, the Company's CEO commented:

"We are delighted with the results of the drilling operations and petrophysical evaluation of the DRC-1 well which point to it being the best exploration success that the Company has achieved in Morocco to date. We look forward to completing the well and observing the production performance during well clean-up operations.  The results have given us a firmer understanding of the local geology and the indication of further gas exploration potential to exist up dip in the Dardara South East structure is particularly pleasing."  

This release has been approved by Ian Conway, Gulfsands Executive Director Technical and Operations, who has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Physics and has 28 years' of experience in petroleum exploration and management. Mr. Conway has consented to the inclusion of the technical information in this release in the form and context in which it appears.

Petrophysical evaluation results quoted in this News Release have been provided by Roger Jenner. Mr Jenner is an independent industry consultant petrophysicist who has more than 30 years of experience in performing petrophysical evaluations of wireline log data. Prior to working as an independent consultant Mr Jenner worked for operating and service companies involved with petrophysical data acquisition and analysis. He has performed numerous petrophysical evaluations on log data from Moroccan onshore biogenic gas wells on behalf of different operating companies. Mr Jenner has consented to the inclusion of the results of his petrophysical evaluation of well DRC-1 in this News Release.

For further information on the matters referred to in this announcement, please refer to the Company's website www.gulfsands.com

Gulfsands Petroleum	[phone]
Mahdi Sajjad, Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Judge, Commercial Director
Buchanan	[phone]
Bobby Morse Ben Romney
RBC Capital Markets	[phone]
Matthew Coakes Daniel Conti Jakub Brogowski
FirstEnergy Capital	[phone]
Jonathan Wright

Certain statements included herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions made by Gulfsands and as such are not a guarantee of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements due to factors such as general economic and market conditions, increased costs of production or a decline in oil and gas prices. Gulfsands is under no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws.

 

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