MTA.L Regulatory News (MTA)

17 Jul 2007 09:39

Matra Petroleum PLC17 July 2007 PRESS RELEASE For immediate release 17 July 2007 Matra Petroleum plc ("Matra" or the "Company") Matra announces the spudding of its Marcali-1 well in Hungary Matra Petroleum plc is pleased to announce that it has spudded the Marcali-1well located on the Inke Concession in southwest Hungary. The well, beingdrilled by Rotary Drilling rig 42, spudded early this morning, 17 July. Marcali-1 is the second of a two well exploration programme on the InkeConcession operated by Matra with a 40% working interest, and follows thesuccessful Horvatkut-1 gas discovery and test announced last week.. Drilling is expected to take 26 days to reach a total depth of 1700m, testingboth a potential Pannonian gas reservoir and a potential Triassic oil target. Itis expected to cost a total of US 2.6 million. Peter Hind, Matra's Managing Director commented: "The Marcali-1 well is our second well to spud in Hungary in the last month.Along with the imminent spudding of our Arkhangelovskoe - 12 well in Russia,this activity demonstrates that we are working hard to explore and appraiseopportunities across our portfolio". Matra has a 40% interest in the well and the Inke Concession. A subsidiary ofAspect Energy has a 60% interest in the well and the Inke Concession. AspectEnergy's main Hungarian subsidiary is Hungarian Horizon Energy. The information in this report that relates to technical matters has beencompiled by Dr Neil Hodgson (BSc, Phd) Matra's Exploration Director a PetroleumGeologist with more than 20 years experience and who is a Fellow of theGeological Society and a Member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of GreatBritain (PESGB) . For further Information, please contact: Matra Petroleum www.matrapetroleum.comPeter Hind, Managing Director +44 (0) 7990 807855Neil Hodgson, Exploration Director +44 (0) 7973 342822 Aquila Financial Limited www.aquila-finacial.comPeter Reilly +44 (0) 207 7202 2601Yvonne Fraser +44 (0) 207 7202 2609 Matra's nominated Advisor is RFC Corporate Finance Ltd -Contact: Steve Allen +61894802500 Background to Marcali-1 Marcali-1 is Matra's second well of the 2007 programme in the Inke concession inHungary. The Marcali well is within the area of 3D seismic, approximately 5 kmseast of the Horvatkut-1 discovery. Marcali-1 targets a seismic anomaly at Pannonian level, overlying an oilprospect in a Triassic fault block. At Pannonian level the well will be drilledon a Direct Hydrocarbon Indicator (DHI) that results from the extensive hightech reprocessing of the 3D seismic data completed in 2006. The seismicreprocessing also indicates a thicker channel sand and structural closure at thesame level. The Inke Concession extends over 2300 sq km and is located some 120kms to thesouthwest of Budapest and to the south of Lake Balaton. The concession containsseveral small oil and gas discoveries, and surrounds an existing producing gasfield. Earlier in June Matra announced that it had concluded an agreement with AspectInternational LLC of USA such that Aspect will pay the next $5.5 million ofcosts to earn a 60% interest in the Inke Concession. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange