Athens, June 26 - Neftegaz.RU. Oil and gas Greek explorer Energean said it had decided to drill an exploration well in the Karish North prospect, offshore Israel, with a planned spud date before end-March 2019.
The Karish North prospect is located within Energean's Karish lease and would be drilled immediately prior to the 3 well development of the adjacent Karish main field, the company said. The cost to drill is around $25 million at the high end to tap a prospect with an estimated 200 million barrels of oil equivalent in natural gas and 14 million barrels of light oil.
The Karish North prospect's gross recoverable unrisked prospective resources is estimated at 33.5 BCM of natural gas and 14m barrels of light oil, a report showed. Its the 1st of 7 optional wells included in the Stena drilling contract, the company said.
The Karish lease is 100% owned and operated by Energean Israel, which is 70% owned by Energean.
«We view Karish North as an attractive near-field exploration opportunity offshore Israel that could deliver significant upside alongside our existing Karish development, for which we have already signed 12 gas contracts and secured 4.2 BCMA of supply over an average period of 16 years,» said Mathios Rigas, CEO Energean Oil & Gas. «The goal of the exploration work is to identify further easy-to-commercialise resources in the region.»
