Longford Energy announced that it has been recently appointed as the Operator of the Chia Surkh Block and plans to commence seismic acquisition during the second quarter of 2010.

Previously, the company acquired a participating interest in a PSC Contract in June 2009 for the Chia Surkh Block, which covers approximately 985 square kilometers, in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Longford has completed the establishment and registration of its Kurdistan office in the city of Sulaymaniyah, and in preparation for the start of operations, a professional management team comprising of foreign staff personnel and local nationals have been put in place. A 300 km 2D seismic acquisition program has been prepared and approved. The seismic program has been designed to evaluate both the known Chia Surkh Field and up to four exploration prospects on the Block.

In September 2009, both DeGolyer and MacNaughton Canada Limited completed an initial resource estimate for the shallow Tertiary horizons of the discovered field. The independent assessment showed a gross unrisked prospective resource with a “best estimate” of 132 million barrels of potential ultimate recoverable oil.

Currently a baseline Environmental Impact Assessment is being conducted, and various other surveys have been initiated. The seismic tendering process has been launched and Longford expects to award the seismic contract in April 2010.

Longford is considering plans to drill the first exploration well on the Chia Surkh Field during the fourth quarter of 2010.