President Energy begins new drilling in Rio Negro

President Energy updated the makret on its drilling operations at the Estancia Vieja and Las Bases fields in Rio Negro, Argentina on Wednesday, reporting that drilling had started at EVN-x1.

The AIM-traded firm said it was targeting a new, undrained structure, with potentially up to 14 million barrels of oil in place, and 26 billion cubic feet of gas.

It said a workover rig was now completing the newly-drilled LB-1001 well, and, subject to successful testing, that was expected in production by the first part of November.

As it had previously announced, the intended target at EVN-x1 was an undrilled and undrained structure within the larger Estancia Vieja field, where the P50 success case for the well was oil of 250 barrels per day, and gas of 60,000cubic metres per day, and where the structure as a whole could contain between five million and 14 million barrels of oil in place, and between 11 billion and 26 billion cubic feet of gas.

“In the event of success, it would open the possibility of some six follow-on wells, of which five would likely target gas and the other oil,” the board said in its statement.

“There are no current reserves booked for any part of this structure.”

The cost of the well was estimated at $2.5m, with approximately 28 days to drill down to the 2,000 metre target depth.

President said a further announcement would be made once target depth was reached and logging of the well had taken place, estimated to be by the end of November.

“A workover rig has now been moved to the newly drilled well LB-1001 at the Las Bases field in order to complete the well ready for testing and then production,” the board added.

“A further announcement in relation to this well is expected to be made before the end of October.

“In respect of the workover programme, a summary of the work and results will be provided at the end of the year.”

At 1328 BST, shares in President Energy were up 3.6% at 1.58p.