dana petroleum news 31st march

Hi most of you HDR supporters may have seen this already, I'll post it could be interesting to some


31st March 2004

DANA PETROLEUM PLC
("DANA", "THE COMPANY", OR "THE GROUP")

Preliminary Assessment of Pelican-1 Discovery Offshore Mauritania

The Pelican-1 exploration well, located in the southern part of Block 7, was drilled in over 5,500 feet of water to a total depth of approximately 12,500 feet. Pelican-1 was the first well drilled by Dana and its co-venturers in the 3 Dana operated production sharing contract areas offshore Mauritania. The well discovered a significant hydrocarbon bearing sequence spanning over 1,000 feet in height. When the well reached its final planned depth, no water-bearing sands had been seen below the hydrocarbon interval. Therefore, the well was suspended so that it can potentially be re-entered in the future for either deepening or a side-track. Prior to suspension, comprehensive rock, fluid and pressure data were obtained from the reservoirs encountered to give maximum information for forward analysis.

Dana is today announcing its preliminary technical assessment of the data gathered. This included over 40 sidewall cores, 11 fluid samples, extensive electric log data, including pressure measurements, and a vertical seismic profile. This information has now been analysed and is being integrated with the existing 3D seismic data across Block 7.

Analysis indicates the presence of two significant gas accumulations located below a depth of approximately 11,000 feet, with minimum gross thicknesses of 500 feet and 125 feet respectively. There is also a further but smaller gas accumulation towards the base of the well. These gas accumulations have been trapped in Cretaceous age sands, the first time significant volumes of hydrocarbons have been discovered in a pre-Tertiary formation offshore Mauritania. Reservoir quality within the developed sands is good with porosities up to 37%.

The recovered reservoir fluid has now been interpreted as being an oil-associated gas with no significant impurities and a hydrocarbon liquid to gas ratio of 23 barrels per million cubic feet. In addition, fluid composition, pressure and structural data point to the possibility of a significant oil leg below the lower of the two major gas accumulations. In particular, fluid inclusion work on the rock samples indicates a light oil with a gravity of around 40 degrees API.

Preliminary calculation of hydrocarbon volumes in the Pelican structure suggests approximately one trillion cubic feet of gas in place, with technically recoverable reserves estimated to be in the range of 600 to 800 billion cubic feet (bcf) and 10-13 million barrels of associated liquids. As the base of the hydrocarbon-bearing interval was not encountered in Pelican-1, there is scope for considerable further upside in these estimates.



Andy Bostock, Dana's Technical Director, commented:

"We are greatly encouraged by Pelican, which was our first well in a very large area operated by Dana. A significant volume of gas has been discovered to date offshore Mauritania and this is likely to become commercial as experienced LNG players become involved. Further drilling will be needed to prove the presence of commercial quantities of oil in Block 7 and we are expecting to come back to the Pelican area once our post-well technical work is complete. In the meantime, we are planning to drill Dana's next Mauritanian well in Block 1, in the latter part of 2004, where our exploration team is focusing on two prospects with combined reserves potential approaching 500 million barrels of oil."


For further information please contact:

Tom Cross, Chief Executive Dana Petroleum plc 01224 652400
Andy Bostock, Technical Director Dana Petroleum plc 01224 652400
James Henderson College Hill Associates 020 7457 2020

Notes to Editors:

1. Dana is a participant in, and operator of, 3 production sharing contracts offshore Mauritania (Blocks 1, 7 and 8) with a combined area of approximately 34,500 sq. km, equivalent to over 150 North Sea Blocks.

2. The Pelican discovery continues the recent regional success offshore Mauritania, where a Woodside Energy led group has made 3 significant oil and gas discoveries (Chinguetti, Banda and Tiof). The Chinguetti field has been declared commercial following a successful extended well test in 2003 and this is expected to lead to the establishment of first commercial oil production offshore Mauritania by the end of 2005 or early in 2006.

3. Following the exercise by Roc Oil (Mauritania) Company of an option to increase its share of the Block 7 PSC from 2% to 5.5%, the current interests in the Block 7 PSC are:

- Dana Petroleum (Operator) 76.5%

- Hardman Resources 18.0%

- Roc Oil 5.5%




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