Horn Petroleum Corporation is pleased to update the market on the drilling operations on the Shabeel well in Puntland, Somalia. Horn is the Operator and holds a 60% working interest in the Dharoor and Nugaal Valley Production Sharing Agreements (“PSA’s”) along with working interest partners Range Resources (20%) and Red Emperor (20%).
The Shabeel well is currently at a depth of 2703 meters and had just completed the setting of the 9 5/8″ casing. The well drilled through primarily tight limestones and shales of Lower Tertiary to Upper Cretaceous age and encountered a 355 meter section of Upper Cretaceous sands and shales of the Tisje / Jesomma Formations at a depth of approximately 1660 meters. The sands in this interval exhibited both oil and gas shows and petrophysical analysis of downhole electrical logs indicates a potential pay zone of between 12 and 20 meters in the section. Attempts to sample formation fluids using a wireline formation tester were not successful and thus the zone will require cased hole testing to confirm whether they are oil bearing. At a depth of 2015 meters a thick section of tight limestones and shales was encountered extending to the present depth of 2703 meters which is believed to correspond to the Upper Cretaceous Gumburo Formation.
The forward plan on the well will be to drill ahead to the originally planned depth of 3800 meters to evaluate the primary and secondary reservoir targets in the Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic intervals equivalent to the main productive section seen in the analogous fields in Yemen. A testing program including the zones of interest seen to date and any deeper potential pay zones identified will be agreed with partners at that time. Upon completion of this well, the Company plans to move the rig to the Shabeel North location on which construction is nearing completion.
Horn President and CEO David Grellman stated, “We are encouraged by the results to date and pleased that we have confirmed the presence of an active petroleum system in the Dharoor Valley. We look forward to drilling ahead into the primary objectives of the well and hope to confirm the shallow prospective zones by testing in the near future.”
Horn Petroleum Corporation is a Canadian oil and gas company with assets in Puntland, Somalia. The Company holds a 60% interest and operatorship in the Dharoor and Nugaal blocks encompassing a Jurassic Rift Basin on trend and analogous to the large oil fields in Yemen. The Company’s shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “HRN”.
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