Aurelian Oil & Gas to target 100m barrels of oil with first high-impact well at Bieszczady

Aurelian Oil & Gas (LON:AUL) has selected the site for its first high-impact well on the Carpathian Thrust Fold Belt on the Bieszczady block in Poland. The well, which is the first of three, is targeting up to 100 million barrels of oil.

The company noted that the well is expected to spud in Q4 2010 and will be drilled to a depth of around 4,600m, taking 2 - 3 months to drill, with results expected in December 2010. “This is the first of (the) wells in our core Carpathian Thrust Fold Belt area that we are funded to drill and we look forward to providing further updates as we make progress with this programme in the next 18 months," Aurelian chief executive Rowen Bainbridge commented.

Aurelian highlighted that the high-impact well will target a number of reservoirs, all of which have proven production in the region.
“There are several other similar sized prospects on trend which will be derisked in the event of the success of this first well.  Using existing 2D seismic data, up to 680 million barrels of unrisked prospective resources have been mapped over prospects in the block,” Aurelian stated.

The company also announced that it intends to carry out a further 300km of 2D seismic acquisition on the licence, starting in August.

This survey will be shot to the north and east of the existing 2D covered area, and with the results, Aurelian hopes to extend the prospect inventory further at Bieszczady. The new survey will be interpreted by Q1/Q2 2011.

Aurelian’s wholly-owned subsidiary Energia Bieszczady Sp. z o.o. has a 25% interest in the property, alongside the majority stakeholder and operator Polskie Gornichtwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (51%) and Eurogas Polska Sp. z o.o. (24%).

Poland remains Aurelian’s key focus with two major projects, the flagship Siekierki field and the high-impact Bieszczady project, both of which are expected to see rapid progress over the remainder of 2010.

Last week, the company began drilling the first multi fracced horizontal appraisal well, Trzek-2, on the Siekierki field in the Poznan licences in Poland. The well will be drilled 4,150m vertically to evaluate the Rotliegendes reservoir (expected in three months), before being sidetracked and drilled approximately 1,500m horizontally towards the Trzek-1 well (expected to take a further 6-8 weeks).

"We are delighted to have achieved an 'on schedule/on budget' spud of the first multi fracced horizontal appraisal well at our flagship Siekierki project in Poland; the first well in the appraisal phase of this project,” CEO Bainbridge had commented.

Trzek-2 is targeting approximately 16 - 28bcf of recoverable gas reserves on the Siekierki field (346bcf net to Aurelian) which is expected to come on stream in the second half of 2011. Upon Trzek-2’s completion the Nafta Piła's IDM 2000 drilling unit will move on to the Trzek-3 well site.

Once both the vertical and horizontal sections of Trzek-2 have been completed, a Halliburton fracture stimulation crew will be mobilised to carry out up to 10 fracture stimulations in sequence. Aurelian highlighted that Multi Fracced Horizontal Wells (MFHW) are a proven technology in shale and tight gas developments globally.

“This is also the first well of its kind to be drilled in Poland.  MFHW is the prime technology used to unlock the potential of tight Rotliegendes sands and has been used with considerable success in Europe as well as in the US shale plays.  This well represents a significant step forward in de-risking tight gas in central Poland,” Bainbridge added.

Aurelian noted that the precise details of the fraccing operation will depend on the reservoir properties encountered, and a flow test to determine the productivity of the stimulated well is expected to commence in late November, with the results to follow in December.
Aurelian has a 90% interest in Siekierki, through its stake in Energia Zachod Sp. z.o.o, which owns 100% of the Poznan licences which host the project. The remaining 10% of Energia Zachod is owned by Avobone NV.

Elsewhere, in Romania, the company recently received positive test results from both the ‘1650 sand’ and the ‘1400 Sand’ in the Voitinel-1 well in Northern Romania, as well as the Climauti-1 discovery, in the Suceava Block, Romania.

At the Voitinel / Solca trend, Aurelian believes that assuming successful fracture stimulation, it may be possible to recover up to 6bcf (billion cubic feet) per well from the 1650 sand, and up to 3bcf per well on the 1400 sand. Also, Aurelian believes that the wider Voitinel/Solca structural trend could have gas-in-place volumes up to 400bcf.

Aurelian has a 33.75% interest in the EIII-1 Exploration Area of the Brodina Block, which hosts the  Voitinel/Solca trend, alongside Europa Oil and Gas (LON:EOG) with a 28.75% and Romanian oil and gas company Romgaz SA owning the remaining 37.50%.

On the Suceava Block, Climauti-1 tested at a rate of 2.7m scf/d (standard cubic feet per day) at a flowing tubing head pressure of 30bar. The Suceava Block is being explored through a 50:50% joint venture with Regal Petroleum (LON:RPT).

The partners estimate that the gross recoverable gas reserves will be 2bcf (billion cubic feet) over the life of the well, and work will start shortly on the installation of a 4km pipeline to the Bilca Gas Plant with first gas expected in Q4 2010.