Circle Starts Drilling of EMD-1 Well in Mahdia Permit

Circle Oil Plc, the Middle East and Africa focused oil and gas exploration, development and production company, reported the commencement of drilling of the well EMD-1 on the offshore Mahdia Permit using the drillship PetroSaudi Discoverer.

The well is located within the vicinity of many producing fields, including the Tazerka, Birsa, Oudna, and Halk El Menzel oil fields, and the Maamoura gas field. The well is planned to test the play potential of the El Mediouni prospect, including the primary Birsa Sands target and the secondary fractured carbonates of the Ketatna Formation.

The Birsa Sands alone have a management pre-drill P50 estimate of 185 MMbo STOOIP. The primary target, the Birsa Sands, is expected at 1,260 metres MD with the Ketatna Carbonates at 1,460 metres MD. The management view on the recoverable prospective resources estimate for the El Medouini prospect is 46 MMbo for the Birsa Sands objective alone. This is substantially larger than the recoverable commercial threshold for the area which stands at approximately 10 MMbo.

Depending on progress rates the well is expected to take approximately 5-7 weeks to drill.

Commenting on the spudding of EMD-1, Prof. Chris Green, CEO, said:

“We are very pleased to be drilling what is our first offshore well and to be working with PetroSaudi and other experienced service companies on this project. It marks the start of another stage in our busy 2014 operational work programme.”