Sterling Energy spuds first Sangaw North exploration well in Kurdistan

Oil & gas exploration and production company Sterling Energy (AIM: SEY) has spudded the Sangaw North-1 exploration well in Kurdistan, northern Iraq. The Sangaw North-1 is the first exploration well on the Sangaw North Block, which will target several prospective Cretaceous and Jurassic aged reservoirs and has a planned depth of 3,660m.

An independent review of the Sangaw North prospect undertaken by RISC Ltd gives a best estimate of gross prospective oil resources for the Cretaceous interval of 804 million barrels.

Drilling and preliminary evaluation is anticipated to take 180 days. The well has been designed with the option to drill deeper to a total depth of 4,160m to test additional Jurassic aged reservoirs. The additional section will be subject to the drilling results of the initial evaluation.

The Sangaw North block covers an area of 492 square kilometres, in a highly prospective area around 50 km south east of the giant Kirkuk oil field and 40 km south of Heritage Oil’s (LSE: HOIL) recent Miran West oil discovery. A number of other operating fields and discoveries are in the surrounding area, Addax Petroleum's (AIM: ADX) Taq Taq oil field and the Chemchemal gas condensate discovery is also on trend with the Sangaw North block.

Sterling is the operator of the Sangaw North Block with a 53.33% interest, Addax Petroleum owns a 26.67% interest while the Korean National Oil Corporation (KNOC) own a 20% interest.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/12868/sterling-energy-spuds-first-sangaw-north-exploration-well-in-kurdistan-12868.html