Circle Oil has announced that it has started drilling its first exploration well El Mediouni-1 (EMD-1) on the Mahdia Permit offshore Tunisia
The well is located within the vicinity of many producing fields, including the Tazerka, Birsa, Oudna, and Halk El Menzel oilfields, and the Maamoura gas field, the Middle East and Africa-focussed explorer said.
EMD-1 is being drilled by the PetroSaudi Discoverer drillship and will be drilled down to at least 1,460 metres. The drilling phase is expected to last between five and seven weeks, Circle Oil added.
Chris Green, chief executive of Circle Oil, said, “We are 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.”
The well is planned to test the play potential of the El Medouini prospect, including the primary Birsa Sands target and the secondary fractured carbonates of the Ketatna formation.
The company’s estimate on the recoverable prospective resources for the El Medouini prospect is 46mn barrels of oil for the Birsa Sands objective alone.
This is substantially larger than the recoverable commercial threshold for the area, which stands at approximately 10mn barrels of oil, according to Circle Oil.
