RE: New PH interview1 Jul 2024 06:49
Translation Cont'd pt2
What are the oil and gas production figures, if there is growth, and how satisfied are you with the results?
We are satisfied because the company continues to grow and develop. Oil flows cover costs and enable us to implement our strategic projects. Like any active oil and gas company, we want to move faster, but obviously speed is often related to capital constraints and what you can spend on developing strategic projects. So far everything is going very well and we are getting a lot of interest. Which also kind of answers your original question about the impact of the political environment on business.
Block Energy has 5 main projects in Georgia, what is their current status?
Project I, which mainly includes ongoing oil and gas extraction, is steadily developing. This project covers the company's expenses and allows us to direct free financial resources to the development of strategic projects. In the case of Project II, an evaluation and development plan is being developed. We have already talked about project III, we are in the process of finding a partner, which is gathering a certain pace. Block Energy's interest in Project IV is currently passive. It is important, but it is being developed by a local oil and gas company. There is a high interest of foreigners in this project, which emphasizes that Georgia remains a subject of interest for investors. However, we have a carbon capture and storage project that is strategic to us and is attracting a lot of interest, both from our engineering team and contractors, as well as from external consultants who are helping us with measurements and process monitoring to move forward and start the first pilot study. These will be carbon injections into some of our depleted reservoirs.
Tell us more about the latter, what is the location and the investment plan?
The project was determined by an independent consultancy in the UK, which is testing some of our depleted reservoirs in the XIB and XIF license blocks. It has been determined that we have about 140 million tons of carbon storage capacity in the reservoir, which has been developed since the 70s. Reservoir characteristics allow us to convert carbon into limestone within a 12-month period. It is quite a unique process depending on the geological composition of the rock in which we are going to introduce carbon. This project is located near the industrial center of Rustavi, where a considerable amount of carbon is emitted into the atmosphere. We are currently conducting research. We hope to be able to develop the pilot this year.
What other new projects and plans do you have this year?
I think the plans will remain mainly focused on finding a partner for the gas project, which is mission critical for the company, it is our strategic project that we want to develop. Also, the carbon capture and storage project is moving forward at a considerable pace. All these will be our main focus.