Hungary's MOL finds oil in Kurdistan

Kalegran Ltd, a subsidiary of the Hungarian energy group MOL, found discoveries in the Akri-Bijeel block to be commercial grade, a communiqué by MOL said in an update on exploration at the Bijell-1 and Bakrman-1 wells of the block, located in the Kurdistan region in the northern part of Iraq. MOL said it was accelerating its work program in order to submit a field development plan for the entire block by 2014.

Quoted by the financial website portfolio.hu, the MOL statement said its recent oil finds at the Bijell-1 and Bakrman-1 wells (Jurassic and Triassic horizon, respectively) of the Akri-Bijeel block in northern Iraq are commercial grade, according to tests carried out by the group's fully owned subsidiary Kalegran Ltd. The company has approved plans for additional rigs to be implemented in order to accelerate the exploration schedule and submit a field development plan by next year. The MOL subsidiary also acts a contractor on the project, jointly with Gulf Keystone Petroleum.

Extended testing at the Bakrman-1 well has confirmed potential for long-term sustainable commercial production. The maximum flow rate achieved during tests was 3,192 barrels of light density oil along with 10.19 million standard cubic feet of sour gas per day.

At the Bijell-1 well, Kalegran and its partners are going ahead with the appraisal work program. Extended well test facility construction and commissioning has been successfully completed, with capability to handle 10,000 barrel per day nameplate capacity.