Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd (AIM: GKP) said the Bijeel-1 well in the Akri Bijeel block in Iraq’s Kurdistan region was spudded on Friday, December 11. Gulf Keystone holds a 20 percent working interest in the production sharing contract. The block is operated by Kalegran Ltd, a subsidiary of Hungarian Oil and gas group MOL holding 80 percent of the PSC.
The Bijeel-1 well will target prospective intervals in the Cretaceous and the Jurassic. The well is the first exploration well to be drilled on the Akri Bijeel block which is adjacent to the Shaikan block. The well is planned to a target depth of approximately 4,300 metres and is forecast to take approximately four to five months to complete.
Executive chairman Todd Kozel commented: "This is the second exploration well in a multi-well exploration and appraisal programme. We are highly encouraged that the Shaikan-1 well has already significantly de-risked the prospects of our adjacent acreage, making Akri-Bijeel and Sheikh Adi two highly exciting drilling prospects.”
At the end of November, Gulf Keystone reported that Shaikan-1 had reached total depth depth of 2,950 meters in the Triassic Zone, and had tested approximately 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from that zone. Without the tool problems that severely limited the test, the Triassic zone could have flowed at up to 14,000 boepd, it had added. Results exceeded the most optimistic prognosis held at the start of drilling.
The company also noted that surface restrictions and down hole tool problems severely limited the first test of the Triassic discovery. Gulf Keystone stated that the test data collected in the first test indicated that the first Triassic zone could have flowed at up to 14,000 boepd. Previous Shaikan-1 test results from the Jurassic zone indicated production of 7,000 bopd. The group said at the time that production rates of about 24,000 boepd from the well were entirely realistic.
The third exploration target in the underlying Permian Zone will be appraised in the middle of 2010 when the company drills the Skaikan-2 well.