The following commentary is from egoli.com.au (Shaw...

The following commentary is from egoli.com.au (Shaw Stockbroking):

Mauritania seen making the grade for Woodside, Hardman - September 3, 2002

Woodside Petroleum’s (WPL) well in Mauritania appears to have paid off for Australia’s largest oil and gas company. Analysts said that they believed the field was now large enough to be developed “stand-alone” with the processing to be done at facilities further up the African coastline.

The company announced Tuesday that a production test had been successfully completed at the Chinguetti-4/2 step-out exploration well in the first zone within the primary reservoir which was first struck last year.


“The production test flowed at a maximum rate of 1560 barrels of oil and 650 Mscf of gas per day through a 30/64 inch choke, constrained by sand production,” reported the company.

Woodside said the sand inflow from the reservoirs can be controlled, and that appropriately designed and completed production wells should be capable of achieving significantly higher flow rates.

SHAW Stockbroking’s head of resources Mr John Colnan commented: “We now believe the company is likely to give the go-ahead and develop the field for production.”

Woodside reported that it is currently recovering the test string and making preparations to production test the second test zone.

Woodside operates the well and holds a 35% stake, while AGIP has 35%, Hardman Resources (21.6%), Fusion Oil & Gas (6.0%) and Roc Oil (ROC) 2.4%.

At 1536 AEST Woodside Petroleum shares were trading 7c higher at $13.14 while Hardman Resources was 1c lower at 82c.