The block’s operator, Petroceltic Ksar Hadada (Petroceltic) with 27.03% and the company, successfully farmed out the Ksar Hadada block in Tunisia in the second quarter of 2009 to a subsidiary of PetroAsian Energy Holdings (PetroAsian), resulting in the current joint venture.
The company said that PetroAsian is committed to finance all of its work commitments in the current program including new seismic acquisition and the drilling of two wells. In third quarter of2009, the joint venture established a dedicated team in Tunis to provide operational support for the planned program.
The joint venture acquired over 100km of new 2D seismic in the fourth quarter of 2009, with processing and interpretation completed in January 2010. Following interpretation of the seismic data, well locations for two Ordovician prospects were selected and approved by the partners in early February 2010.
The company added that the contracts have now been placed for long lead items and a contract for drilling rig services has been entered into by Petroceltic with Compagnie Tunisienne de Forage (CTF), the drilling subsidiary of Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activites Petrolieres (ETAP), the National Oil Company of Tunisia, for the CTF Rig 06. Drilling is expected to commence in June 2010 and operations are expected to continue for an estimated 12 weeks.
Moreover, independent assessments of gross prospective contingent resources and chances of success for the 2010 drilling targets on Ksar Hadada have been carried out by Blackwatch Petroleum Services on behalf of PetroAsian.
