Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL), the FTSE 250 exploration and production group, has commenced drilling the Miran West-3 well in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The drilling marks Heritage’s first appraisal well on the field since two wells early in 2011 resulted in what it claimed was the discovery of the largest gas field in Iraq for the last 30 years.

The primary objective of the Miran West-3 well is to appraise the Miran West structure and it will target both the Jurassic and Cretaceous reservoir formations encountered in the Miran West-1 and Miran West-2 discovery wells. Heritage has estimated gross in-place volumes for the Miran West structure to have a P90-P50 range of 6.8-9.1 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, with an upside P10 gas potential of 12.3 TCF. This is in addition to the estimated P50-P90 range of 42-71 million barrels of condensate and 53-75 million barrels of oil.

The Miran West-3 location and well trajectory provides a 4.3 kilometre appraisal step out from the Miran West-2 Jurassic reservoir penetration. The planned well path targets the flanks of the structure. The well bore will be orientated and inclined to optimally intercept open fracture networks associated with multiple faults identified on recently acquired 3D seismic data. This well will also appraise the Cretaceous oil and gas reservoirs discovered in the Miran West-1 and Miran West-2 wells, further enhancing knowledge of the Miran structures.

Drilling of the Miran West-3 well is expected to take approximately seven months with key reservoir intervals being tested as the well is drilled. After drilling and testing, it is intended that this rig will move to drill the Miran West-4 appraisal well. A second rig is being sourced to drill the planned Miran East-1 exploration well, with drilling expected to commence before year end, at which time there will be two rigs operating in the Miran Field.

Elsewhere, Heritage said that a 3D seismic programme of the Miran field was now approximately 90% complete. It said the significant improvement in seismic data quality over the Miran Field was encouraging and assisted greatly with the selection of well locations. Initial interpretation of the first tranche of data acquired has highlighted increased resource potential, in particular for the Miran East structure. This potential will be targeted by the Miran East-1 exploration well to be drilled before year…

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