STERLING, AN OIL and gas exploration and production company with interests in Africa and the Middle East, has announced the spudding of the Sangaw North-1 exploration well. The well, in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, was spudded on 1st February 2010.TERLING, AN OIL and gas exploration and production company with interests in Africa and the Middle East, has announced the spudding of the Sangaw North-1 exploration well. The well, in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, was spudded on 1st February 2010.
The Sangaw North-1 well, the first exploration well on the Sangaw North Block, will target several prospective Cretaceous and Jurassic aged reservoirs and has a planned depth of 3,660 m. An independent review of the Sangaw North prospect undertaken by Research & Intelligence Support Centre (RISC) (UK) Ltd gives a best estimate of gross prospective oil resources for the Cretaceous interval of 804mn barrels. RISC specialises in the delivery of professional research and intelligence analysis consulting and training services to law enforcement, government and the business sector.
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 decision to drill this additional section will be taken based upon the drilling results, says Sterling. Drilling and preliminary evaluation is anticipated to take 180 days. Sterling is the operator of the Sangaw North Block with a 53.33 per cent WI.
The block, which covers an area of 492 sq km, lies in a highly prospective area around 50 km south east of the giant Kirkuk oil field, on trend with Addax Petroleum’s Taq Taq oilfield and the Chemchemal gas condensate discovery and 40 km south of Heritage’s recent Miran West oil discovery.
