MXP.L Regulatory News (MXP)

21 Feb 2006 07:03

Max Petroleum PLC21 February 2006 MAX PETROLEUM PLC ("Max Petroleum" or "the Company") Cooperation with KazMunaiGas and Operations Update Max Petroleum is pleased to announce that on Friday 17th February 2006, SamekInternational LLP ("Samek"), a subsidiary of Max Petroleum, signed an Agreementwith KazMunaiGas Exploration and Production JSC ("KMGEP"), the producingsubsidiary of the Kazakhstan State oil company KazMunaiGas. Under the agreement,Samek allows KMGEP to retain certain minor portions of Samek's Block E acreage.KMGEP was producing from this area prior to the acreage being awarded to Samek.Production from the retained areas has been estimated to average less than 200barrels of oil per day. In return KMGEP will provide Samek with copies of all of its data relative toBlock E. This data will be of significant benefit to Max Petroleum incorrelating well logs with seismic data and in finding suitable locations forwell re-entries and/or new shallow wells in existing oil accumulations, within ashort space of time. In addition, the cooperation agreement will provide Samekaccess to KMGEP's oil treatment facilities for annual production volumes of over2 million barrels of oil per year for the period 2006 through 2010, withprivileged access thereafter at the nominal cost of oil treatment. Jointgeological surveys with KMGEP and Samek will also be considered. Following the 31st January 2006 Operations Report, Max Petroleum can advise thatthe initial seismic program has now been completed. As a result of fieldprocessing and further interpretation of the seismic data, several differentplay types have been found and there is now an inventory in excess of 50supra-salt (shallow) potential drilling targets, that are typically at depths of350 to 900 metres, with some believed to extend to depths of 2000 metres. Maxwill be moving on to fully process the seismic, mature the leads into prospects,and then high-grade the prospects with a view to start drilling a number ofshallow prospects in late Q2 / early Q3 2006. These new leads are separate tothe larger identified pre-salt structures analogous to Tengiz and Kairan fields.The Tengiz field is 50 kilometres south of E Block, while Kairan is 20kilometres south west of E Block. Jim Jeffs, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Max is delighted to formalize its cooperation with KazMunaiGas, the State oilcompany of Kazakhstan, and looks forward to continued cooperation in the future.We are excited about the short-term prospectivity with over 50 shallow leadsidentified already, with processing on E Block still to be completed and all ofthe processing on A Block yet to take place." 21st February 2006 Enquiries:Max Petroleum PLC James A. Jeffs T: +44 (0)20 7355 9590 Chief Executive Officer Steve Kappelle T: +44 (0)20 7355 9590 Chief Operating Officer Pelham Public Relations Charles Vivian T: +44 (0)20 7743 6672 E: Charles.vivian@pelhampr.com Alisdair Haythornthwaite T: +44 (0) 20 7743 6676 E: Alisdair.haythornthwaite@pelhampr.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange