Don Southwest field onstream
Valiant Petroleum plc ("Valiant") is pleased to announce that first oil from the Don Southwest field (the "Field") has been achieved and the two production wells are on-stream. Valiant holds a 40% interest in Don Southwest, through a wholly owned subsidiary, which sits in UKCS Licence P.236, Block 211/18a and is operated by Petrofac Energy Developments Limited.
The production wells will be supported by water injection wells currently being drilled using the Transocean John Shaw semi-submersible drilling unit and which are due to be on-stream in October.
During drilling of the southern water injection well on Don Southwest, an opportunity was taken to drill a low incremental cost side-track into a previously undrilled compartment to the south of the Field (known as Area H). Although the well was not optimally located to test the full potential of the compartment, Valiant is pleased to announce that the side-track did encounter a 60 foot oil column in the upper Brent formation, thereby extending the boundary of the Field to the south. The structure is currently being reinterpreted with the new data to better understand the implications for further prospectivity in this and the other compartments in the area.
Further phases to the Don Southwest appraisal and development program are currently being defined for 2010 and onwards incorporating the newest information gained from the field and will be finalised following a technical assessment of the field's initial production performance.
Peter Buchanan, Valiant's CEO, commented:
"We are very pleased to achieve first oil production from the Don Southwest field and look forward to completing this phase of the Don project in the near future. Our strategy for the Don fields is to grow production through future stages of exploration, appraisal and development drilling and our success in finding oil in Area H provides confidence in this strategy. We are excited about next year's development options that are currently being defined and we take great confidence in our ability to grow this core area."
