Salamander Energy plc notes the following announcement made by GFI Oil and Gas. On 14 December Salamander reached agreement with the Board of Directors of GFI Oil and Gas for the proposed acquisition of the entire issued and to be issued share capital. A combined Prospectus and Circular was posted to shareholders on 14 February 2008 and an EGM is scheduled for 10 March 2008.
GFI Oil & Gas Corporation Announces Results for Development Drilling at the Bualuang Field
GFI Oil & Gas Corporation ("GFI") announces results from the drilling of its first two development wells at the Bualuang field, Thailand. GFI holds rights for a 60% interest in the Block B8/38-Bualuang field.
The initial development well, known as the Bualuang 05, has been drilled and logged to a true vertical depth of 1221 meters sub-sea. Preliminary evaluation of the well logs confirmed the well encountered oil pay over a 25 meter gross interval (approximately 21 meters of net pay). The well encountered porosity averaging 29% and preliminary core analysis indicates permeability averages 809 millidarcies over the pay interval.
The second well, known as the Bualuang 01, has been drilled to a true vertical depth of 1270 meters and logged. Preliminary evaluation of the 01 well logs indicate the well encountered oil pay over a 23 meter gross interval (approximately 20 meters of net pay). This well was not cored and the logs over the pay zone indicate an average porosity of 27%.
Development operations at Bualuang will continue until mid-April 2008.
GFI's Chief Executive Officer Alex Warmath said, "We are pleased with the progress we have made so far in developing the Bualuang Field and with the initial results of the development drilling program currently underway. Our work at Bualuang continues on track, with the FPSO Rubicon Vantage expected on location by late March 2008."
GFI Background
GFI is a public company listed on TSX Venture Exchange Inc. (symbol "GFI.V") with core interests in two offshore fields currently under development, the Bualuang oilfield offshore Thailand (60%) and a 35% non-operated interest in the Kambuna natural gas and condensate project located offshore northern Sumatra, Indonesia. GFI also holds a 22.5% non-operated interests in the Seruway PSC a license covering approximately 1,100,000 acres located offshore North Sumatra Indonesia.
Salamander Energy Background
Salamander is an independent upstream oil and gas exploration and production company focused on South East Asia. Since its formation, Salamander has built a balanced portfolio of production, development and exploration assets with interests principally located in Indonesia and Thailand.
Salamander has a clear strategy of acquiring and developing high quality oil and gas producing assets that provide potential near-term value and cash flow growth, and of exploring in proven, but under-explored and overlooked frontier basins. Its current assets are located in South East Asian basins where Salamander believes it can further exploit its geological knowledge.
On 14th December 2007 Salamander announced that it had reached agreement with the Board of GFI Oil and Gas (“GFI”) for the proposed acquisition of the entire issued share capital of GFI. GFI’s interests in Indonesia and Thailand complement and enhance Salamander’s portfolio by adding late-stage development assets that will bring production growth in 2008 and 2009 and add 17.75 MMboe of 2P reserves.