A “significant oil accumulation” has been found at Hunt Oil Middle East’s Simrit-2 exploration well, located in the Ain Sifni production sharing contract in Kurdistan, a partner to the project has announced.

In an announcement, project partner Afren said preliminary data analysis of drilling, wireline logs and sidewall core sampling showed the well had hit an estimated 409 metres of net oil pay in three reservoirs.

An estimated 312 metres of these contained light oil, Afren said, with no oil water contact found in any of the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic age reservoirs.

In light of the findings and continuing strong hydrocarbon shows, the companies planned to test more zones by further drilling the well from its current true vertical depth of 3697 metres to about 3800 metres.

Once drilling had concluded a comprehensive well testing programme would be carried out across multiple reservoir intervals, after which the drilling rig would be mobilised to the East Simrit prospect to drill the Simrit-3 exploration well.

Afren chief executive Osman Shahenshah said result was the second major success for his company in 2012.

“The scale of the oil column that has been intersected suggests that the Simrit structure and surrounding prospects elsewhere on the Ain Sifni PSC have the potential to be transformational for Afren,” he said.

Hunt Oil holds an operating stake of 60% in the Ain Sifni PSC, with two 20% stakes held by Afren and the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Source: Upstream Online