Toreador finds Black Sea gas

Offshore staff

DALLAS, Texas -- Toreador Resources Corp. and its joint venture partners TPAO (the Turkish national oil company) and Stratic Energy Corp. encountered 37 m (121 ft) of gas-bearing sands in three zones with the Akcakoca-4 well offshore Turkey in the Black Sea. The zones lie between 1,159 and 1,375 m (3,083-4,502 ft) true vertical depth. The deepest zone, with approximately 13 m (43 ft) of net pay, tested at a flow rate of 8.6 MMcf/d of gas.

"The Akcakoca-4 is the 11 successful well out of 13 drilled in the South Akcakoca sub-basin, and further extends the area of known reserves in our project area. We continue to achieve excellent results at the drill bit, and in the near future will begin the first gas production ever from the Turkish Black Sea," says Michael J. Fitzgerald, Toreador's senior vice president of exploration and production.

After testing the upper zone in the Akcakoca-4 and securing the well, theSouthern Cross semisubmersible rig will move 2.5 km (2 miles) east northeast to drill the third well in its current contract with Toreador, Guluc-1. The Guluc prospect is on a separate fault block further east along the Akcakoca fault trend with several distinct pods. Once operations are complete on the Guluc-1 the rig will move to Bulgarian waters to begin work for another operator.

Toreador recently completed the Dogu Ayazli-1 and Dogu Ayazli-2 wells in the South Akcakoca sub-basin project. The wells were completed, tested, and tied back to the Dogu Ayazli tripod. Dogu Ayazli-1 tested at a combined rate of 14.2 MMcf/d of gas from two sets of perforations.

The Dogu Ayazli-2, which is being completed as a single completion, flowed 11 MMcf/d of gas from 13 m (43 ft) of perforations between 1,345 and 1,402 m (4,414-4,601 ft) depth.

With the completion of the Dogu Ayazli wells, the next steps toward first production are topsides installation for the Dogu Ayazli and Akkaya tripods, and tie-in to the offshore pipeline system.

The topsides are nearly complete at the construction yard in Izmet, Turkey, and should be transported to the South Akcakoca area in February, the company says. Testing of the offshore pipeline has been completed, and the pipeline has been buried.

Production will start from the Akkaya and Dogu Ayazli tripods before the Ayazli tripod is installed. Installation is scheduled for February.

1/26/2007