Gold Oil PLC
12 July 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12 July 2006
GOLD OIL PLC
('Gold' or the 'Company ')
Gold invited to enter final negotiations for an Exploration & Exploitation
Contract covering Block Z-34, Offshore Peru
and
Gold has spudded its Block XXI San Alberto 1 exploration well
Block Z34
Gold is pleased to announce that the Company has been qualified by Perupetro as
an Offshore Operator and Contractor. With its AIM listed joint venture partner,
Plectrum Plc ('Plectrum'), we have been invited by Perupetro to start exclusive
negotiations with them to finalise the details of an Exploration Licence
covering Block Z-34, offshore Peru. It is expected that the contract will be
signed and approved by Perupetro within weeks, with formal approval by the
Minister of Energy and Mines sometime later.
On 8 May 2006 Plectrum announced that it had agreed to form a joint venture with
Gold in respect of Block Z-34, jointly giving notice to convert Gold's existing
Promotion Agreement into a 30 year Exploration & Exploitation Licence. Final
completion of the transaction was subject to the qualification of both companies
as approved contractors and the negotiation and approval of the Exploration
Licence terms by the Peruvian authorities.
Block XXI
Gold is pleased to announce that on the 10 July 2006 it spudded the San
Alberto-1X exploration well on Block XXI, onshore Sechura Basin in North West
Peru. The well is the first on the Block and is targeting both gas at less than
3,500 feet in the Verdun reservoir, producing gas in the nearby La Casita field,
and oil in the deeper Palaeozoic that is producing oil in the San Pedro oil
field. Total depth pf 6,500 feet is expected to be reached in some three weeks.
Gary Moore, Gold's Managing Director, commented:
'This is excellent news for Gold in our new joint venture with Plectrum. I look
forward to speedy negotiation of the contract terms so that we can become
operationally active as soon as possible and commence exploration activity on
Block Z34. It is also very important to Gold that exploration drilling has
started in such a short time since the Licence was ratified on the 4 of April
2006.'
For further information, please contact:
Gary Moore
Managing Director Tel: +44 (0)1737833597
Michael Burchell
Chairman Tel. +44 (0) 1372361772
Roland Cornish
Nominated Adviser
Beaumont Cornish Limited Tel. +44 (0) 207 628 3396
Notes to Editors
The offshore Block Z-34 sits in the prolific Talara Basin which has produced to
date in excess of 1.7 billion barrels of oil and 340 billion cubic feet of gas
(1). The 3,713 km(2) block (equivalent to 14 North Sea Blocks) sits adjacent to
existing producing concessions in water depths of 100-3000m, yet has a sparse
existing data set of just 500km 2D seismic and no wells. The initial work
programme will be to acquire a conventional modern 2D seismic grid and enhance
these data with Electro Magnetic (EM) studies.
The area of Block XXI is equivalent to just less than 14 UK North Sea blocks.
The block lies in a desert area, next to the city of Piura, and to the east of
an existing producing gas field. Both lie within the Sechura Basin, which is
adjacent to, and is believed to be a sub-basin of the Talara Basin.
Previously the Company had been interested in the potentially gas bearing Verdun
reservoirs in Block XXI, but the recent well by PetroTech offshore Sechura Basin
flowed oil at 1200 bopd from the Paleozoic, a reservoir previously not
considered over the last 100 years to produce oil at these rates. PetroTech have
since drilled more wells in its development of the San Pedro field. The
Paleozoic reservoirs are believed to run under Block XXI with top being at
around a depth of 4,000 feet.
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