MXP.L Share News (MXP)

Kazakhstan-based oil and gas exploration firm Max Petroleum has discovered "very good" reservoir quality at its SAGW-1 exploration well in the Sagiz West prospect. The group now estimates that the area has 66m barrels in place, with an expected 20-30% of recoverable oil. President and chief financial officer Michael Young, said: "Sagiz West is a large, conventional post-salt discovery that validates our focus on the Triassic rim play type that makes up the majority of our forward shallow prospect inventory. "We have now drilled eight successful wells since March 2011, with three discoveries, bringing our overall success rate with our shallow exploration programme to 50% since January 2010."The group also announced that it has commenced drilling the ASK-2 exploration well in Block E at Asanketken, targeting Jurassic and Triassic reservoirs with an estimated resource potential of 50 million barrels of oil. The total depth of the well will be approximately 3,300 metres.NR