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LONDON (Alliance News) - Mongolia focused Petro Matad Ltd said Monday its operations at its "very exciting" prospect Wild Horse-1 continue to progress on track.
Shares in Petro Matad were up 10% Monday at 6.50 pence each.
The spud date for Block IV, at the Wild Horse location in Mongolia, is expected for late October. The well, which is expected to reach a total depth of 2,200 metres, is estimated to take between 30 and 45 days to drill and log.
Due to the generally milder winter, Petro Matad expects to complete the Wild Horse drilling operations this year.
The recoverable resource potential at Wild Horse is estimated to be 480 million barrels of oil.
At Block V, located next to Block IV, operations were completed on September 25 and data and samples gathered during the drilling of the well are now under evaluation.
Environmental permitting for two potential drilling locations on the 200 million barrels of oil Fox prospect in the Tugrug Basin, at the block, is "advancing with a target of securing approval by the end of 2018", in time for the start of the 2019 drilling season.
Petro Matad said the tender for a rig for the 2019 Block XX drilling, in eastern Mongolia, is in its final draft form.
The company is hoping the contract will be finalised by January 2019.
Chief Executive Officer Mike Buck said: "Operations continue to progress on track for us to drill and log the Wild Horse-1 well this year. Wild Horse is a very exciting prospect and from the size of the potential prize alone, the Wild Horse 1 well certainly deserves its place in Wood Mackenzie's ranking of the top 20 exploration wells to watch in 2018.
"We continue to work hard on preparations for next year's drilling campaign and look forward to updating the market on Wild Horse soon."
