DNO International ASA, the Norwegian oil and Gas Company, announced that the Benenan-3 well currently drilling in the Kurdistan region of Iraq has encountered movable oil in the Bekhme formation at a depth of around 2,000 meters. Testing is ongoing to acquire additional data.
Benenan-3 initiates the multi-well development of the Benenan field in the Erbil license and will be completed as a horizontal producer in the Najmeh formation. The deeper Najmeh formation was oil bearing in both the Benenan discovery and appraisal wells; the Bekhme formation, however, was not conclusively tested in those down dip wells.
Following Benenan-3, the rig will be mobilized to drill the Bastora-2 development well in the adjacent Bastora field, also in the Erbil license. Bastora-1, the first horizontal well completed in Kurdistan, is producing from the Bekhme formation under long-term test in preparation for full field development.
In other ongoing operations in Kurdistan, the Tawke-18 well, designed to increase Cretaceous production and test an exploration footwall target below the main field-bounding fault, is drilling ahead at 2,400 meters. The Tawke-17 well, drilling ahead at 550 meters, is also designed to increase Cretaceous deliverability from the eastern flank of the Tawke field and test the exploration potential of deeper Jurassic and Triassic intervals. A fourth rig has been mobilized by the Company to re-enter the Tawke-14 well in early October for a planned sidetrack into the Cretaceous interval. Tawke-19, the last Tawke development well under the 100,000 barrels per day production enhancement program, is also scheduled to spud in early October.
"Through these wells and others planned next year, the Company is targeting in excess of 500 million barrels of gross unrisked oil and gas reserves, predominantly in Kurdistan," said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO International's Executive Chairman. "Our drilling campaign is aggressive, it is balanced between exploration and development and it is consequential," he added.
Additional information about the Company's operations and financial results will be presented by Haakon Sandborg, Chief Financial Officer, at the Nomura Upstream Conference in London today and the Pareto Oil & Offshore Conference in Oslo on 12 September. The full presentation is attached.