Panoro Announces Additional Well in Tunisia and High Levels of Production Activity

Panoro Energy ASA [PEN-OSE] announced that it has approved, along with its joint venture partner ETAP, the Tunisian National Oil Company, the drilling of a production well on the Guebiba onshore field, part of the Thyna Production Services S.A. (“TPS”) operated assets in Tunisia. This will be the first drilling operation on the TPS operated assets since 2015.

This production well is anticipated to spud in May, and will be drilled using the CTF 06 rig, a 2,000-horsepower onshore rig owned by Compagnie Tunisienne de Forage (“CTF”), the Tunisian state-owned drilling contractor. The operations will utilise an existing top hole section and will target a new production interval on the Bireno formation at 3,600 meters in a known fault block compartment, where an assessment of the historical performance of the field has concluded that a further drainage point is required to effectively exploit the resource potential present in the western panel of the field. The expected incremental production uplift from this well is expected to significantly increase the daily output at the TPS operated assets.

John Hamilton, CEO Panoro, said: “We are extremely pleased to have secured the CTF 06 rig to drill at the Guebiba onshore field, in advance of its use on our Salloum West exploration well. Our Tunisian assets are undergoing an unprecedented high level of activity and we expect this to yield results in material additional production during the first half of 2020.”

This additional well at the Guebiba onshore field will be drilled in advance of the Salloum West exploration well, also targeting the Bireno formation, which has been slightly delayed due to outstanding regulatory approvals. Once the rig CTF 06 has concluded drilling operations at Guebiba, the intention is to immediately mobilise the same rig to drill Salloum West, following an anticipated final approval being received.

In addition, further production activities are underway, with three wells in the final stages of being completed and brought on-line in stages by the end of 1Q 2020. Collectively, these workover activities are expected to increase the TPS operated assets gross production to ca. 5,000 bopd. TPS have had a workover rig on site since December and these workover activities have contributed to a rise in gross production to in excess of 4,000 bopd, up from the Q3 2019 average production of 3,450 bopd previously announced (Q4 2019 averaged approximately 3,500 bopd).

Other activities to boost daily output are also in the advanced phase of planning, with implementation expected during the next few months. As an example, a recent well stimulation exercise on one well in the Rhemoura field, part of TPS operated assets, resulted in a fourfold increase in production. As a result, the joint venture partners are now planning a campaign of similar stimulations in several other TPS fields.