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Ascent Resources completes testing of two gas wells in Hungary

Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:02:00 AM

Ascent Resources plc, the AIM-traded oil and gas exploration and production company, has announced the successful completion and testing of two wells in Hungary.

Ascent Resources has on Thursday announced the successful completion and testing of the Görbeháza-1 well (GH-1) located in the western part of the Nyírség Szatmár permits in Hungary, known as the Panhandle. The first of two gas zones targeted for completion has achieved a gas flowrate of 3.74 MMscfd (106,000 Mm3/d).

The GH-1 well was drilled vertically to a total depth of 1,300m and encountered two gas bearing zones within the Upper Pannonian formations between 970m and 1,025m. The deeper of these two zones between 1,018m and 1,021m has been tested and flowed gas with small amounts of condensate at a rate of 3.74 MMcfd (106,000 Mm3/d) with a flowing wellhead pressure of 1,191 psig (81 barg). The well has been completed as a gas producing well and 2.5km of pipeline will be laid to the Hajdúnánás Gas Production Facility, where condensate will be recovered and the gas processed and sold into the main Hungarian gas pipeline network.

Ascent has a 20.167% interest in this project; other partners include JKX (33.333%), DualEx (12.5%) and Swede Resources AB (0.667%).

“The GH-1 well has produced gas at over 3.5 MMscfd from the first of its two completion intervals. This discovery is particularly important as the drilling location was identified by utilising the same 3-D seismic technology that was used in the recent successful Penészlek appraisal well," said Ascent's Managing Director Jeremy Eng.

“We are using the same seismic techniques to identify drilling targets in Slovenia, where one third of a 90 sq km survey has been acquired in the area of the Petisovci project," he added.

Ascent Resources, through its Hungarian subsidiary PetroHungaria Kft, has also completed the testing of the PEN-105 gas well in the Nyírség permits of Eastern Hungary. The gas rates achieved and the reserves associated with this appraisal well were substantially higher than pre-drill estimates.

The PEN-105 well, an appraisal of the PEN-12 discovery, was drilled to a total depth of 1,487m and has now been completed in the tuffaceous Miocene reservoirs as a production well. Environmental permitting of the pipeline that will be used to bring the gas to market is complete and construction is planned so that gas sales from this well can commence early in 2010. The productive reservoir found at the PEN-105 location is substantially thicker than at the PEN-12 discovery well, which should translate into a significant increase in anticipated reserves for the structure. The higher than expected flow rates are attributed to the use of state-of-the-art drilling mud and perforation technology.

The PEN-105 well is located some six kilometres west south west of the PEN-104A gas production well in which Ascent has a 45.23% interest. Other partners in the project include DualEx Energy (37.5%), Geomega (8%), Leni Gas & Oil (7.27%) and Swede Resources (2%).