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LONDON (Alliance News) - Caspian Sunrise PLC on Wednesday said a recent change in Kazakh law should save it USD6.0 million when it looks to move to a full production licence in July.
Kazakhstan-focused Caspian can apply for the full production licence from the start of July, which would allow it to double to price achieved for each barrel of oil it produces. The first production licence it will apply for will be the MJF structure, where it has drilled six wells, four of which are producing.
Looking at its other wells on the BNG contract area, Caspian said on deep well A5 it had tried to perform a clean out using coil tubing, but this has proved not to be the best way to do this.
It has now mobilised a rig to remove the entire tubing string from the well. This, it said, is more expensive but is a more certain solution, and it would not have been able to be done in winter. Caspian expects the well, if work is successful, to get back flowing and be ready to start a new 90-day test.
At deep well 801, Caspian said recent side track work has been "encouraging" after weather delays and initial drilling difficulties.
It has drilled 132 metres so far, and expects to reach total depth during the second quarter of 2018 after picking up the pace. This well will also then be ready for a 90-day test.
At Caspian's deep well A6, the plan remains to re-perforate the well using more powerful explosives, but work will not start yet as the drill pipes are being used at the 801 well.
On the MFJ structure, aggregate production from the four producing wells over the last three months was 1,900 barrels of oil a day.
Caspian plans to bring in a contractor at the other two non-producing wells on the structure to rectify an water production issue.
Average production from its 'Soviet-era' well 54 as well as three new wells alongside it was 100 barrels of oil a day combined, and it said the reservoirs are potentially suitable for exploration by horizontal drilling. It will start a viability study for this in 2019.
Chairman Clive Carver said: "Progress in Q1 2018 was slow, partly through weather related delays and partly through equipment failures. Encouragingly progress in Q2 has picked up so that we have expectations of the blockages currently in deep wells A5 and 801 being cleared to allow 90-day flow tests to resume later in Q2.
"Production at our shallow wells continues to fund the bulk of our day to day work at BNG where the price derived per barrel is set to double from Q3 2018."
Shares were down 5.6% on Wednesday at 9.56 pence each.
