HDY.L Regulatory News (HDY)

31 Dec 2007 07:00

Hardy Oil & Gas plc31 December 2007 For Immediate Release 31 December 2007 Hardy Oil and Gas plc ("Hardy" or "Company") Commencement of Drilling Exploration Well on India Licence & Successful Well Test Results in Nigeria Hardy Oil and Gas plc (AIM: HDY), the oil and gas exploration and productioncompany with assets in India and Nigeria is pleased to announce the spudding ofits first exploration well KGV-D3-A1 on the KG-DWN-2003/1 (D3) explorationlicence on the East coast Krishna-Godavari deep water basin in India, and thesuccessful well test on the Company's Oza field in Nigeria. The exploratory well KGV-D3-A1 was spudded at a water depth of 720 metres (m)with the semi-submersible drilling rig "C Kirk Rhein" on 28 December 2007.Thewell is targeted to drill to 2,959m MDRT to explore hydrocarbon prospectivitywithin the Pleistocene and Miocene formations. The Pleistocene target is a deepwater fan complex and the Miocene target is an unconformity trap. Hardy, through its wholly owned subsidiary Hardy Exploration & Production(India) Inc., holds a 10 per cent participating interest (PI) in the D3exploration license. Reliance Industries Limited is the operator and holds a 90per cent PI in the block. The D3 exploration license is in phase one whichprovides for the drilling of six exploration wells. Hardy is also pleased to announce the completion of a successful well test onits Oza field in Nigeria. The well test comprised the running of multi ratetests, a gradient survey, and collecting PVT samples. The flow rates averaged606bbls/d with an average GOR of 5,466scf/stb. The Oza joint venture willutilise the results of the well test for the planning of future fielddevelopment activities. The test was carried out by Millenium Oil and Gas Company Limited, operator ofthe Oza field. Hardy, through its wholly owned subsidiary Hardy Oil NigeriaLimited, holds a 40 per cent working interest in the Oza field and is thedesignated technical partner. The Oza field is located in OML 11 onshore block,about 35km north east of the city of Port Harcourt in Abia State, Nigeria. For further information please contact: Hardy Oil and Gas plc 020 7471 9850Sastry Karra, Chief ExecutiveYogeshwar Sharma, Chief Operating Officer Arden Partners plc 020 7398 1632Richard Day Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000Mark EdwardsBen Willey MDRT - measured depth from rotary table GOR - gas to oil ratio OML - oil mining lease bbls/d - barrels per day scf/stb - standard cubic feet per stock tank barrel km - kilometre This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange