Irish explorer Petroceltic will plug and abandon its first exploration well in Kurdistan following limited finds.
The Shakrok-1 encountered a 27metre gas condensate column in the Triassic formation after reaching its total depth of 3,538metres.
But the partners of the joint venture – Petroceltic together with operator Hess and Kurdistan Regional Government – decided not to test the zone, as they are looking to investigate a number of prospective oil zones in the Jurassic formation instead.
In the meantime the companies are preparing to drill the first well in the Dinarta licence, expecting to spud Shireen-1 in early May.
The well is targeting oil in both the Jurassic and Triassic formations, with mean unrisked gross resources estimated at 706million barrels, and is expected to take around 150 days to reach its total depth.
“While the secondary Triassic objective has found limited hydrocarbons, we believe that the outcome of the testing program on the primary Jurassic objective is independent of the Triassic result,” said Brian O’Cathain, chief executive of Petroceltic.
“We will continue to update shareholders on the outcome of the Shakrok well testing and Dinarta operations as soon as material results are available.”
The join venture partners share equal interests in both licences with Petroceltic owning 16%, Hess 64% and Kurdistan Regional Government 20%.
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