Melrose proves further gas at Kaliakra

Offshore staff

EDINBURGH-- Melrose Resources has successfully appraised its Kaliakra gas discovery in the Bulgarian sector of the Black Sea, 15 km (9.3 mi) east of the Galata field production platform. The Kaliakra No.2 well was drilled around 1.8 km (1.12 mi) west of the discovery well by the jackup GSP Prometeu.

The well penetrated the top of the Paleocene reservoir interval at a depth of 2,679 ft (816 m) and encountered 67 ft (20.4 m) of net gas pay, thicker than the 31 ft (9.4 m) of net pay resulting from Kaliakra No.1. Open hole logs and downhole gas samples confirmed that the reservoir has good properties, with average porosity of over 30% high gas productivity.

The well has since been suspended for future use as a development well.
Based on the results, Melrose estimates the field’s probable reserves at 57 bcf. The findings may also have a positive impact on other discoveries and exploration prospects on the Galata/Kaliakra geologic trend, the company adds, effectively de-risking the undrilled Kavarna East structure between Kavarna and Kaliakra, where reserves are assessed at 19 bcf.

Bulgaria’s incoming government has appointed a new Council of Ministers, including the Minister for Economy, Energy and Transport and the Minister for Environment and Waters. Melrose is confident the government will shortly issue approval for development of the Kavarna field as a subsea tie-back to the Galata platform.

The company is also preparing a submission for consents for the Kaliakra field development, which will be tailored to accommodate future tie-in of the Kavarna East reserves. Melrose is also engaging with the new administration to progress the various agreements needed to start the Galata gas storage project.

Chief Executive David Thomas said: “We are very pleased with the results from the Kaliakra appraisal well which confirm our geologic model for the area and effectively increases the most likely combined reserves estimate for Kavarna, Kavarna East, and Kaliakra to 100 Bcf.

“This is approximately one and a half times the size of the Galata field reserves produced between 2004 and 2009. Beyond these three structures we still have two other exploration prospects to drill on the same geologic trend and we plan to acquire further 3D seismic data in early 2010 to the north of the trend where we believe the same Palaeocene exploration play may be present.”

08/11/2009