Tuesday 5 June 2012

WesternZagros appoints VP of operations

Iraqi-focused oil and gas company WesternZagros Resources (CVE:WZR) announced Tuesday the appointment of Michael Mossman as vice president of operations.
"I am delighted to welcome Michael to the WesternZagros team. His depth of knowledge and breadth of international experience are particularly well-suited to the planning, evaluation and execution of all our joint venture drilling programs," said the company’s CEO, Simon Hatfield.
"As a senior member of our executive management team, Michael will play an important role in the delivery of WesternZagros's targets."
Mossman has experience in senior operational, technology development and executive management across several exploration and development projects.
He spent 35 years with BP (NYSE:BP) (LON:BP) working on projects across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. Most recently, he held the role of BP's vice president of operations, and country manager for BP Algeria.
His career with BP began in the North Sea location, and was followed by positions in Qatar, the UK, Colombia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Algeria.
Mossman holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Bristol University and a Masters of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College.
WesternZagros is focused on exploring, developing and producing crude oil and natural gas in Iraq. Through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, the company holds two production sharing contracts (PSC) with the Kurdistan Regional Government in the Kurdistan region.
Recently, the company reported that it generated $25.9 million of gross oil proceeds in its first quarter, more than doubling what it made in the fourth quarter of 2011.
The company said proceeds were generated from the sales of 450,000 barrels of test oil from the Sarqala-1 well in Iraq.
The company reported it had $30.6 million in working capital at the end of the quarter that finished March 31.
After the first quarter, the company announced several operational achievements, including an increase in the mean estimate of gross unrisked contingent resources within its PSC lands to 171 million barrels of oil, compared to 54 million barrels previously.
The substantial boost was due to the discovery at the Kurdamir-2 exploration well of 147 million barrels of mean contingent resources, and a further 1.4 billion barrels of mean estimate gross unrisked prospective resources.
The Kurdamir-2 exploration well was spudded on October 25, 2011 and is operated by Talisman Energy (TSE:TLM) (NYSE:TLM).

The well is located approximately two kilometres northeast of WesternZagros’s Kurdamir-1 discovery well and is targeting the Oligocene, Eocene and Cretaceous reservoirs on the flank of the structure, where the company says the combined potential oil interval is likely at maximum thickness.

WesternZagros and Talisman each have a 40 percent working interest in the Kurdamir block, with the Kurdistan Regional Government holding the remaining 20 percent.
WesternZagros anticipates that the deeper Eocene and Cretaceous reservoirs will be drilled and evaluated by the end of the second quarter this year at Kurdamir-2.

The co-venturers are also planning a 3D seismic program over the Kurdamir structure and a further appraisal well (Kurdamir-3) to assess the ultimate size of the Oligocene reservoir.
Shares of WesternZagros closed at 87 cents on Monday.

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