Block 22/12, Beibu Gulf, Offshore China (ROC: 40% & Operator)
Roc Oil (China) Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of ROC, advises that as at noon (local time) on 12 February 2008, the Premium "Murmanskaya" jack-up rig commenced drilling the Wei 6-12E-1 exploration well, on a stratigraphic-structural prospect approximately 1.7 kilometres east of the Wei 6-12S-1 oil discovery.
Wei 6-12E-1, the second of the planned three well exploration/appraisal drilling programme in Block 22/12, is expected to reach a Total Depth of approximately 2,520 mBRT by end February 2008.
Participating Interests in the Block 22/12 Joint Venture are:
Roc Oil (China) Company: 40% (Operator)
Horizon Oil Limited: 30%
Petsec Petroleum*: 25%
Oil Australia Pty Ltd**: 5%
The above interests are subject to Government participation in developments of up to 51%
*a subsidiary of Petsec Energy Ltd
**a subsidiary of First Australian Resources
WA-286-P, Perth Basin, Offshore Western Australia (ROC: 37.5% & Operator)
Roc Oil (WA) Pty Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of ROC, advises that as at 1830 hours (local time) on 12 February 2008, the Premium "WilCraft" jack-up drilling rig commenced drilling the Frankland-2 appraisal well in WA-286-P, in the North Perth Basin, offshore Western Australia.
Frankland-2, an appraisal well approximately one kilometre northeast of the 2007 Frankland-1 gas discovery, is the second of the planned two well exploration/appraisal programme in the region. Frankland-2 is scheduled to reach a proposed Total Depth of 2,278 metres by the end of February 2008.
Participating Interests in the WA-286-P joint venture are:
Roc Oil (WA) Pty Limited: 37.5%
AWE Oil (Western Australia) Pty Ltd: 27.5%
ARC Energy (Offshore PB) Limited: 30.0%
CIECO Exploration and Production (Australia) Pty Ltd: 5.0%
Offshore Mauritania (ROC: 2 – 5.9%)
Roc Oil (Mauritania) Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of ROC, advises the imminent commencement of a two well exploration/appraisal drilling programme offshore Mauritania.
The Atwood "Hunter" drilling rig will shortly commence drilling the Petronas-operated Khop-1 exploration well in PSC Area C, Block 6, approximately 70 kilometres off the Mauritanian coast.
The well, which is in approximately 925 metres of water, is expected to reach a planned Total Depth of approximately 4,320 mBRT during March 2008. The Khop-1 well will test the dominant structural feature in Block C6, a four way dip structure of Albian aged sandstones covering an area of 220 square kilometres /54,000 acres with a vertical closure of 1,200 metres. The P90, P50, P10 and mean recoverable oil reserve estimates range from more than 100 MMBO to more than 1,000 MMBO.
The second well in the two well programme, located in PSC Area B, will appraise the 2002 Banda gas and oil discovery during April 2008.
Participating Interests in the PSC Area C, Block 6 are:
Roc Oil (Mauritania) Company: 5.00%
PC Mauritania I Pty Ltd (Operator): 37.578%
Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd: 35.000%
Hardman Petroleum (Mauritania) Pty Ltd: 18.422%
Planet Oil Mauritania Limited: 4.000%
Participating Interests in the PSC Area B are:
Roc Group Companies: 3.693%
PC Mauritania I Pty Ltd (Operator): 53.846%
Hardman Chinguetti Production Pty Ltd: 21.600%
Mauritania Holdings B.V: 11.630%
Premier Oil Mauritania B Limited: 6.000%
FP Mauritania B B.V.: 3.231%
Commenting on the commencement of the three new wells, ROC’s Chief Executive Officer, John Doran stated that:
"ROC is going through a period of record exploration and appraisal drilling activity. Four wells in four countries simultaneously testing targets in shallow water offshore China and Western Australia, deepwater offshore Mauritania and onshore Angola. The perceived risks range from high frontier exploration to lower risk appraisal while the size of the individual features being tested ranges up to hundreds of millions of barrels of recoverable oil. Three of the four wells are operated by ROC, the exception being the well in Mauritania. When these four wells are finished and regardless of their results, ROC’s 2008 exploration and appraisal drilling programme will simply roll on to the next set of wells offshore China and Mauritania and onshore Angola, thereby ensuring shareholders remain exposed to potentially important drilling results through to the middle of the year and beyond."
