Hardman Resources Ltd (‘Hardman’) provides the following progress report on the Mauritania offshore drilling programme:
Tiof-6 Appraisal Well - PSC B
Progress and Current Status:
Since the last report on 13 January 2005 the West Navigator has completed casing and cementing operations and suspended the Tiof-6 well for future production flow testing. Wireline data has confirmed the thickness of the oil column, and the well will be re-entered once the rig has completed drilling commitments on the Chinguetti Field. It is expected that once re-entered preparations for testing the well will take 1-2 weeks.
Well Location:
The Tiof Discovery is located approximately 90 kilometres west of Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital and 25 kilometres north of the Chinguetti Field. The Tiof-6 well is located 3 kilometres west of the Tiof-1 discovery well and 1 kilometre east of Tiof-3. Water depth is approximately 1,165 metres.
Well Details:
The Tiof-6 well is intended to further appraise the Tiof oil discovery and will continue the evaluation of the Miocene channel sand system within the Tiof Field area as interpreted with 3D seismic.
Chinguetti Development Drilling
Since the last report on 13 January, the Stena Tay has continued drilling operations on the Chinguetti field. Hardman does not intend to provide detailed weekly reports during the course of the development well drilling programme but will continue to report significant matters as appropriate and in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations.
Other information:
All reported depths are referenced to the rig rotary table (except water depth).
Times and dates refer to Mauritania time (GMT), 8 hours behind Western Standard Time, Perth.
A map showing the location of the 2004/05 wells is available on the Hardman website (www.hdr.com.au) and will be updated during the course of the 2004/2005 drilling programme.
The government of Mauritania has exercised its right to participate in the Chinguetti development, as previously announced, and the resulting joint venture interests in the Chinguetti Field and PSC B are:
| Woodside group companies (operator) | 53.846% | 47.384% |
| Hardman group companies | 21.6% | 19.008% |
| BG group companies | 11.63% | 10.234% |
| Premier group companies | 9.231% | 8.123% |
| ROC Oil group companies | 3.693% | 3.250% |
| Groupe Projet Chinguetti (Govt. interest) | - | 12.000% |
SCOTT SPENCER, DIRECTOR
Note: In accordance with Australian Stock Exchange Limited listing requirements, the geological information supplied in this report has been based on information provided by geologists who have had in excess of five years experience in their field of activity.
This information is provided by RNS, The company news service from the London Stock Exchange.
RNS ANNOUNCEMENTS
RELEASE DATE: 18 January 2005
