DUSHANBE, August 22, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tethys Petroleum Limited (Tethys) has announced that the Tajik seismic program will commence in late August as most equipment is now in country and the contracted company, Prospectiuni, has completed the preliminary set-up and testing work.
According to press release issued by Tethys, the program, up to 870 km of 2D seismic acquisition, is designed to identify a drilling location for the first deep well expected to commence in 2013.
The initial analysis of the data from the aerial graviometry survey completed at the end of 2011 reportedly revealed several attractive prospective areas with the potential presence of very large deep sub-salt and sub-thrust prospects within the Bokhtar Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Area. The additional seismic about to be acquired will target these areas and provide the final data in a comprehensive program to optimally locate a deep well.
This final stage of the seismic program will involve the acquisition of new seismic in two areas: the Vaksh Valley and the Dushanbe Step. The program has reportedly been designed to target these areas as the graviometry survey and other data have identified them to be the most likely to contain large deep prospects including potential Jurassic reefs located on the edge of likely Permian basement high features. Jurassic reefs form some of the most prolific fields in the Amu Darya basin (of which the Bokhtar PSC area forms part) and no wells have ever been drilled through the overlying salt layer into that horizon in this region of Tajikistan to date. This basin is extremely prolific containing oil, gas and condensate fields and indeed some of the world’s largest gas fields are located in this basin. These data also reveal significant potential in other parts of the PSC Area, including the Kulob area, however it has been decided to focus on the Vaksh Valley and the Dushanbe Step initially.
It is expected that this new seismic program will further confirm the high potential in the Tethys PSC acreage. Tethys now owns an 85% interest in the Bokhtar PSC following the recent acquisition of an additional 34% interest from its partner in the project. Tethys continues to hold discussions with numerous potential farminees with the aim of concluding an agreement by year-end.
Further evaluation of the Beshtentak Field has been carried out in light of the initial success of the BST20 well. Three to four other candidates have been identified for workovers in different horizons and well preparation work is expected to commence at the end of August with initial results expected in late September.
We will recall that Tethys announced in late July that its Tajikistan assets cover an area of approximately 35,000 sq. km and the estimated gross unrisked mean recoverable resources are 27.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE).
The primary strategy in Tajikistan is to complete a comprehensive geological and geophysical data gathering exercise with the intention of locating and drilling the first deep exploration well below the regional salt layer. This deep well will target very large prospective resources, as set out in the independent resource report. These prospects have never been drilled before in Tajikistan but are prolific producers from similar reservoirs in the adjacent countries including Turkmenistan.
This program is firmly on track and consists of the following: in 2008, Tethys obtained and analyzed the State geophysical information and well data of the shallower drilling that had been undertaken in the Soviet period and compiled an extensive database, which was combined with a regional geological model built in-house; in 2009-10, Tethys designed and acquired a regional seismic program whereby approximately 700km of good quality seismic was obtained and interpreted; in 2011, Tethys carried out an aeromagnetic graviometry survey over more than half of the PSC Area. (these data complement the acquired seismic data, State geophysical information and well data); in 2012, following on from the results of the aeromagnetic graviometry survey, a seismic contractor has been appointed and equipment mobilized to commence acquisition of focused seismic data over key prospective areas with the intention of identifying the location for the first deep well (it is planned that Tethys” large ZJ70 drilling rig “Telesto” will be mobilized to Tajikistan by year”s end with the intention of drilling the deep well in 2013.
Tethys also continues to exploit the shallow potential in Tajikistan with oil production from Beshtentak, deepening of the Persea exploration well and plans for further evaluation of the East Olimtoi oil discovery.
Tethys is focused on oil and gas exploration and production activities in Central Asia with activities currently in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This highly prolific oil and gas area is rapidly developing and Tethys believes that significant potential exists in both exploration and in discovered deposits.
