Baku, Azerbaijan, May 21
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Kazakh State Reserves Committee has approved the Tethys Petroleum Limited's gas reserve evaluation for the Kyzyloi Production Contract area in Kazakhstan, the company reported on May 21.
"This approval is a precursor to a further extension of 15 years of the contract and is subject to confirmation and registration of this extension with the appropriate bodies including the Ministry of Oil and Gas of the Republic of Kazakhstan," the company said.
The Contract Area covers some 287 square kilometers (70,918 acres) and the company is currently producing gas from the shallow Kyzyloi sandstone in this area. Such an extension will give Tethys significantly more time to produce natural gas from this attractive area.
Moreover, work continues on the shallow gas exploration and development programme in the surrounding Akkulka area. Drilling operations on the AKK20 well have commenced. This is the fourth exploration well of the 2014 shallow gas programme and is targeting gas at two shallow gas horizons, both the Kyzyloi sand and, at the deeper, higher pressured Tasaran sand level.
Testing of the AKK17, AKK18 and AKK19 wells will commence in early June with AKK20 to follow on should the logs indicate success and this is expected to take a combined 6 - 8 weeks. Following testing, State Reserves will be obtained for these deposits and these wells will be tied into the existing infrastructure along with AKK05, AKK15 and AKK16. The order for gas dehydration equipment has now been placed, with the aim of commencing significantly increased gas production from the beginning of 2015.
"Our project team is focused on meeting the objective of tripling gas production by the beginning of next year and our commercial negotiators are working on achieving significant increases in gas prices, all of which should add significantly to cash flow from the project in 2015," Vice President Project Development for Tethys Steve Elliott said.
Tethys is focused on oil and gas exploration and production activities in Central Asia with activities currently in the Republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Georgia. This highly prolific oil and gas area is rapidly developing and Tethys believes that significant potential exists in both exploration and in discovered deposits.