Petrel Energy has announced that the Schuepbach Energy International (SEI) funding arrangements have been finalised with Petrel agreeing to fund its 51% interest in the 4 well Uruguay drilling programme. Petrel raised the first $3m tranche of its funding in early September 2017 with additional tranches totalling $0.87m being finalised in following 2 months. SEI’s other shareholders have been finalising their financing arrangements over the last 2 months with US private interests and are now able to commit to funding the 4 well Uruguay drilling programme.
With financing certain SEI is now in a position to sign a drilling contract with its US based contractor to provide equipment and manpower to drill the 4 wells in Uruguay. It is anticipated that much of the equipment will be mobilised by mid-December allowing for site preparations to commence, while the rig following a final fitout will be mobilised in January. Regular updates will be provided from initial shipping through to site preparations and spudding of the first well.
Petrel’s overarching vision for Uruguay is to drill four wells as cheaply as possible and cover as much of the concession area as possible while targeting multiple and different objectives within and across each well.
More specifically the programme will seek to answer questions from the 2015 partner process such as:
- confirm source rock maturity, quality and extent – 'resource upside'
- confirm conventional reservoir quality and extent – Darcy permeability (>1000md) already measured in core samples 30km apart
- confirm migration and potential trap integrity - while not the primary objective 3 of the 4 wells are also targeting structures for oil and gas trapped in either the same sequence or up-dip of oil shows and/or weeping core samples
- confirm validity of AVO anomalies identified on seismic
The early September capital raising raised $3m with an initial $2.3m shortfall. To date a total of $866,323 of shortfall shares and options have been placed in two tranches with a $1,434,237 available for placement before 30 November 2016. The company expects to make further placements of up to $500,000 before 30 November 2016.
Managing Director, Mr David Casey, said 'while it has taken longer than initially envisioned we are very pleased that our partner has been able to fund its share to enable us to undertake the entire 4 well programme. Although we could have potentially pushed ahead with a reduced drilling programme, 4 wells not only represent a significantly better chance of success but importantly enables us to as economically as possible address key objectives across as much of the permit area as possible. The 4 wells also cover our commitments until late 2017'. He went on to say 'that it is incredibly exciting to be undertaking the first onshore drilling programme in more than 30 years and potentially be the first not only to book Uruguay’s first ever certified resource but hopefully their first ever hydrocarbon discovery'.
